


The Time Traveller's Almost Wife

by tantedrago



Series: The Time Travellers' Daughter [1]
Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Body Swap, F/F, Gen, Magical baby fiction, Post-Instinct Fiction, Seeing your own future, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-28
Updated: 2014-03-01
Packaged: 2018-01-13 23:16:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 56,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1244170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tantedrago/pseuds/tantedrago
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short time after the events of 'Instinct', Myka has an accident with an artifact that allows her to see her own possible future with Helena. But this time travel is linked to mysterious events in the future and the present. A mysterious woman threatens Helena in Boone. And what the hell is going on, anyway?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so let's be honest: This was the very first fanfiction I ever wrote... ever. Let's not even talk about the quality of the English in this one (there is no quality). I had several beta readers: madgirlwitharainbowbox (chapters 1-4), ohthesefeelingz (chapter 5-8), jrustdc (chapter 9-10) and lastminutegenius (chapter 11-epilogue). Thanks to them. But looking back at this, I couldn't fight my urge to work slightly over it. So, this version of the story is different from the version on fanficton.net. I'm talking about the English, guys. And some details, like... what are people even doing while talking? It seems past-tantedrago had no clue about this.  
> This story is a time travel mess and shouldn't be read if one easily gets a headache. It's part of a series but can also be read as a stand-alone, if you prefer that. But actually, from my point of view, the following parts are better. ;) Welcome to a world, where shitty cancer storylines have never happened and will never happen, and to my weird version of a baby fic.

It was a quiet and almost boring afternoon at the warehouse. Myka sat on a the little stool in an aisle full of clocks and watches. She was going through a checklist while Claudia looked through the shelves and told her the current conditions of the artifacts she was inspecting.

"...current condition of the object: Dusty", Claudia coughed while turning a pocketwatch in her purple gloved hands, "still ticking like 30 years ago when the last person did inventory in this aisle."

Myka smiled and took notes on her clipboard. Claudia was speaking in a very bored tone and Myka almost knew what the young woman would say next:

"Current condition of the person doing inventory: Very bored, tired and extremely hungry. When exactly did Steve want to bring us lunch?"

Nailed it.

Myka clipped her pen on the paper and sighed. She knew Claudia wouldn't continue inventory in this mood.

"At 1 PM, Claudia."

"And what time is it now?", asked her friend.

"Claudia, you are standing in an aisle full of watches."

"Myka," Claudia whined, "I'm standing in a warehouse aisle full of snagged, bagged, and tagged watches. I'm pretty sure at least half of them would try to kill me when I tried to read the time from them and I'm pretty sure with my luck I would try the one watch that tries to take over the world after this."

Myka chuckled. Claudia's mood was brilliant and she could tell this would end up in a big argument about being forced to do inventory while other people were allowed to go on artifact hunt. Pete and Artie were gone to search for a gender swap artifact, and Myka and Claudia weren't allowed to come with them because "it would cause problems," as Pete had put it.

Having seen Claudia's disappointment, Steve had promised to stay with the girls. Myka had taken Claudia with her to do inventory and Steve had offered to bring some lunch.

Abigail was currently watching the computers for pings, but there weren't any so it was almost too quiet at the Warehouse and the more time went by, the more Claudia had become frustrated.

"It is 12:30, Claudia.", Myka said calmly, "You will have to wait a little."

She looked back at her clipboard and wanted to take her pen, when Claudia asked:

"So, how are you doing lately?"

Myka closed her eyes for a second. She really hadn't felt well since she left Helena playing house in Boone, but she didn't really want to talk to Claudia about it, while they were between a bunch of old watches . Maybe later over a glass of wine after dinner. Maybe she could go on an artifact hunt with Claudia alone and then talk to her in the car...Okay, maybe she would never want to talk about this. Myka sighed. She ran her finger over the edge of a shelf.

She had left Helena there in Boone because she had wanted her to be happy. Myka had noticed how happy Helena had looked with Adelaide and she didn't want to take this happiness from her. Beyond this, Myka was still mad at Helena for not calling or showing in any way that she was alive. She was mad about the situation, about the fact that the person she thought she knew better than anyone else completely left their mutual place. She was mad about Nate.

Myka's heart beat very painfully for a second while she let her thoughts go that way. Helena was with Nate. He was allowed to touch her, to take her in his bed.

Shocked, she listened to her inner self. Why was her heart this much hurting when she thought about Helena and Nate? As a good friend she should be happy for both of them. She didn't like losing a friend to a place called "Boone" Wisconsin, but she should at least be happy that Helena had someone to be happy with.

"Mykes?"

Myka blinked. Claudia. She had totally forgot Claudia was looking at her. A little relieved, Myka realised that she had turned away from her while she had been lost in thought, so her friend wouldn't see the tears in her eyes.

"Oh Claudia", Myka said in the friendliest voice she could find, "I've been really tired for a few weeks now. I think if I could take a week off or so, I'd stop falling asleep during the day."

She wiped her left hand over her eyes but didn't turn around to see Claudia's sceptical look while her right hand was running nervously over the shelf. That image of Helena came back to her and she shivered a little.

"It's about HG, isn't it?" Claudia asked boldly.

The hand on the shelf stopped for a moment, then went running on, even more nervous, not following a particular path but clearly showing the emotions behind that act. Fingers were slowly sliding next to artifacts, not touching them but constantly in danger to make contact.

"I've no idea what you are talking about." Myka pressed through her lips.

"Myka, come on. I know there is something going on. I'm not blind. I may not be a human lie detector but if you really weren't thinking that much about HG, you would at least say something like you missed her a little or something. Right now you're lying really badly." Claudia crossed her arms and leaned against a shelf.

Myka turned around and looked in Claudia's eyes. She almost choked on her own tears while she searched for an acceptable answer, still running her fingers over the shelf. She felt completely caught and didn't know what to answer.

"Myka, I didn't want to make you sad, I just thought you needed to talk about this and wanted to offer you my help.", Claudia whispered softly. She looked very concerned.

When Myka searched for an answer, she looked down to Claudia's boots, struggling with herself, not wanting to tell the truth or to realise the truth for herself. But she also knew that admitting everything would help her dealing with her sorrows.

Myka felt her finger touching something on the shelf. She paused. Suddenly the realisation hit her that she wasn't wearing any gloves, because Claudia was doing inventory while she only was taking notes for her. Her head turned to her right hand. She saw her finger touching and artifact.

"Oh", she could hear her own voice saying in surprise.

And then she felt lightweight and everything went black.  
__________________________________________________

Claudia knew Myka had touched something when she saw her swaying.

The girl pushed herself from leaning against the shelf and closed the gap between them in less than a second.

"Myka! Are you okay?" She asked, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. She studied Myka watching her own hands like she hadn't seen them in a long while.

"What did you touch, Myka?" Claudia asked in panic.

"I- I felt the urge to touch that wrist watch over there..." Myka trembled dangerously.

Claudia pulled a neutralizer bag out of her pocket. Without hesitation, she pulled the watch at which Myka was pointing from the shelf and threw it in the bag.

"Duck", she yelled in the act.

Sparks.

"Okay whatever this did, I think I just rescued you from it, so we don't have to worry about..."

"Claudia?", Myka interrupted her.

"Yes, Mykes?"

"What has happened to your face? What...what is going on with you?"

Claudia stopped and looked at Myka in surprise: "What do you mean by 'my face'? Well, I didn't sleep very well tonight because of all the-"

"No!", Myka shook her head, "You don't look tired. You do look _young_. Like you did 10 years ago. Like you are in your early twenties, I can remember your hair being cut like this."

Claudia stepped back, raising her eyebrows while studying Myka's face.

"Well, Myka. That's because I am 21. You remember my birthday party at the bar? It was fun. I sang a song with Cherie Currie. I was very good at it. Maybe that good that you should remember that day."

Myka looked at her like she had seen a ghost: "That's impossible," she rose from the stool, "because that was 10 yea-" In surprise she looked down and touched her stomach, "WHAT is going on?", She yelled and turned around, walking towards a big hall clock with a mirror in the door.

Claudia watched Myka looking in the mirror. The older woman looked very surprised when she saw her own reflection. She started touching her face.

"Myka, what is going on?" Claudia demanded to know.

"Is the mirror in this artifact okay? It's not a magic mirror, or something?", Myka asked without answering Claudia's question.

"Yes," Claudia answered slowly "Why are you asking this? Myka, I'm afraid. Please talk to me!"

Myka turned around

"Did I always look like this? Do I look like my reflection?"

"Okay, now I _am_ really really afraid."

"Answer the question, please."

"Well, I think your hair was more brownish three years ago and it didn't look that much out of control back then-" Claudia tried, but was interrupted by her friend.

"Claudia!"

"You _did_ always look like this and you look exactly like your reflection." The girl huffed, still feeling utterly confused.

Myka's face expression changed from surprise to despair. Her hands fell down to her sides.

"Myka, what is going on?" Claudia's voice was filled with panic.

"I think..." Myka said with her eyes widened, "I think I travelled back in time."


	2. Chapter 2

Myka sat in Artie's office on the one side of the table, while Claudia and Steve carefully eyed her from the other side. They both poked their forks awkwardly in their lasagna which had already gone cold. 

Abigail leaned on the computer table. She raised her hands in confusion.

"Okay, now explain it to me again. I don't think I understood that. It's really a little too much for me."

Myka sighed, closing her eyes for a second. Then she smiled at Steve and Claudia, turned around and focused the very concerned looking woman."Okay. I _am_ Myka. But I am from the future. You told me it is 2013. I'm from 2023. That's ten years from now. Today - uhm...in my time - I walked through the same aisle Claudia from... - oh, well - your time found me a few minutes ago. I was looking for my... for somebody. My-time-Claudia was helping me and when I was in that aisle I felt an urge to touch this watch." She pointed at the neutralization bag between her and the fork-in-lasagna-poking companions, "And because that urge felt unbearable, I did touch that watch. So now I am here and I'm not in the body I am used to. It utterly frightens me to look in the mirror, looking ten years younger."

Claudia took a bite from her lasagna, made a disgusted face, and put her fork down. "That's cold."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Well I wasn't expecting this big interruption by time travelling Myka, so I didn't bring anything to keep it warm, okay?"

Claudia looked at Myka curiously. "I have a question! So you are from 10 years in the future. And I'm still at the Warehouse? Do I work as an agent?...or what I am doing there? Am I ca-"

Myka shook her head, interrupting the girl immediately. "I don't think it is a good idea to tell you anything about the future."

Steve also put his fork away. "So this reminds me of what you mentioned from HG's time machine, doesn't it? You travel back through time but you don't take your body with you but take over the body of another person? Does this mean our Myka is blacked out and won't remember a thing?" He asked, interestedly.

Myka focused the bag with the watch on the table."I don't know. I don't know if this works like Helena's time machine. I don't know how long I will stay here and I don't know where your Myka is now."

Claudia grabbed the bag and opened it."What do we know about this watch?" She asked, looking into the bag. "I mean, is there any information about it in the computers? Why hasn't the effect stopped when I neutralized it?" Myka smiled carefully at her, raising her hands in confusion. "I really don't know more about that than you do."

In reaction, Abigail grabbed a Farnsworth. "Okay, I will call Artie and Pete and you, Claudia, will stay with the computers and search through it, looking for anything we could know about this. Steve... you could clean up the dishes. And, well, Myka, just stay where you are ...and don't move. I don't think it will be helpful if you mess around in our time that much."

Myka nodded in agreement. "I thought the same. So I will just stay here and watch you working. It is actually pretty funny to see my friends this young again." She leaned back in her chair, deciding to wait for what would happen next.  
__________________________________________

At some point in the future, Myka opened her eyes. She eyed her own hand carefully, surprised to find it touching a watch. Immediately, she pulled back her hand. "Oh, no. Claudia, I think I just touched this artifact. Could you hand me a bag, please?"

She was grateful for this interruption, because she didn't want to think about Helena any longer - or being asked questions by Claudia about the Victorian. Right now, she just wanted to leave the Warehouse and maybe hide in her room for the rest of the day. Maybe reading a book and getting some Twizzlers would help. Yes, she definitely wanted to get some Twizzlers.   
But Claudia still didn't hand her a bag. "Oh, come on, Claudia, this is important. I will go on talking with you after we neutralized this. I would prefer to not get whammied right now."She said, turning slowly on the balls of her feet.

There was a quiet voice in her head, wondering where her stool had gone. Right now, she was _crouching_ in front of the shelf.

And Claudia was also nowhere in sight.

Immediately, the American started worrying. She hoped that the artifact hadn't whammied her. Claudia couldn't hide that fast, could she? And where did the stool go? Myka looked around, carefully asking: "Claudia?"

When she get up from her crouching position, she felt heavy and her back hurt. She pressed her hand on a spot on her lower back and sighed. "Claudia?!", she yelled, "Where are you?!"

Suddenly, Myka heard a voice from a slight distance to her left. It was Claudia, definitely. She seemed to be in another aisle. "I'm here. Steve just called me. He said he found her. She visited him doing inventory in the Darwin's aisle. She is alright. So we don't need to worry anymore."

That was definitely Claudia's voice but Myka had no idea who she was talking about. Helena was, as they both knew, in Boone, and since she was the last person they both had talked about...

Myka's stomach suddenly hurt a tiny bit. In reaction, she placed a hand on it and then froze. Because... - This couldn't be. Did she really got that whammied? What was going on? She looked down at her belly -

\- and started screaming immediately! Her only thought was: _Not again!_

Claudia sprinted into the aisle in which Myka currently stood, looking utterly nervous. "I said she is alright, Myka. Everything is okay. What is going on?"

"CLAUDIA! I'm pregnant! I'm pregnant again!" The older woman tried hard to keep herself from panicking, but failed poorly.

The surprise on Claudia's face didn't seem to be meant for her pregnancy but more for Myka's reaction to it. "Yes, I know Myka! For five months, now. And I really like to be a godmother this time if you'd ask me."

Myka raised her hands in panic, her voice was shaking: "Did I get whammied again? Did I...? Claudia, I touched this watch by mistake when we were talking about Helena. I didn't pay attention." She anxiously eyed the watch. "Do you have a neutralization bag?"

Claudia still looked at her quite concernedly. Myka had no explanation for this - also not for what the girl in front of her looked like. "Claudia, is everything okay? When I didn't knew it better, I'd say you look so old."

"Well, Myka, have you looked in the mirror recently? Because- " The older woman interrupted her. This was important!

"No, really, you are old! What is going on here? Okay. Okay. Let's focus. I have touched a watch. Consequence: I seem pregnant and you are old. Do I maybe see future events? But ...pregnancy?!" She was extremely concerned about this.

"Myka? You are talking weird." Claudia mentioned, sounding utterly careful.

"Could you please just neutralize that watch?" Myka asked, feeling desperate.

Claudia sighed, pulling a glove and a bag out of her pocket. Then, she took the watch Myka was talking about and threw it in the bag. They both ducked because of the sparks. Claudia was the first to leave this position: "So..?" She asked, still in this careful tone of voice.

"You are still old... and well, I'm still pregnant.", Myka answered, looking down to her swollen belly. This was a lot to handle, this was confusing. This was frightening.

Somebody walked into their aisle. Somebody who was talking in a familiar British accent- Somebody, whose dark eyes felt so warm on her skin that Myka started shivering.

"Ah, here you two are. I would like to inform you that we found Sarah with Steve in the Darwin's aisle. She feels well and asked for her Mommy." Myka looked at the woman in surprise. "Helena? What are you doing here?"

The Brit's eyebrows furrowed, apparently in confusion. "Well, as I said, I wanted to inform you that Sarah is with-"

"No." Myka interrupted her. "I mean, here. What are you doing here in the Warehouse?" She asked. This was getting more and more mysterious to her. She could feel her own heart pumping in her chest, her mouth dry. Her throat felt like slowly it was closing slowly with some sort of rubber band bound around it. "Oh my god. I got really that whammied." She turned around, mumbling to herself. "But I didn't touch anything but this watch. And we neutralized it. What the hell is going on? Are there any other artifacts I touched? Maybe without noticing it." Myka inspected the shelf more thoroughly.

"Myka, darling, are you alright? Do you not feel well?" Helena shot Claudia a concerned look. The girl just shook her head in reaction, mouthing 'Don't ask me.' Then the girl crossed her arms, sighing and looking like she was deeply in thought.

Then she looked up again, it seemed she had had some sort of revelation. Taking a few steps towards Myka, the bag with the watch still in her hand, she carefully asked: "Mykes, may I ask you something? I have an idea about what could possibly be happening here."

Myka was still busy with looking through the shelves. "Yes?"

"What year is it?"

"Pardon me?" The curly-haired woman's eyebrows darted up in confusion.

"Right now? What do you think what year we're in?", Claudia made a few more steps in her direction.

"That's a silly question, Claudia. It is 2013." Myka replied with a dismissive wave of her hand.

She could hear Helena inhaling air in rection to her words. So Myka turned towards her: "What?"

"Well, darling. I agree that you might be 'whammied' by an artifact, but in a completely different way. Myka, I think I am quite an expert on that topic, so I can tell you without any doubt that you seem to have travelled through time."

Myka jumped: "Excuse me? Are you trying to tell me...?"

"Welcome to the future, Mykes.", Claudia grinned a little mischievously. "It's actually 2023."  
________________________

2023

Myka had asked to leave for the restroom next to Artie's office. Alone. She was standing in front of the mirror over the sink, looking at her own face, which wasn't really her own face. There were more wrinkles around her eyes and her mouth. Some grey hair around her temples, her own eyes more wise and mature.

She felt like she was watching a completely different person. A person she should probably know best, who had changed that much that it was hard to recognize her. Although that person looked familiar. Myka couldn't put this feeling into words. It was just... strange.

The curly haired sighed deeply, turning on the water to let it run over her wrist. _Concentration, Agent Bering._   
A few seconds later, she left the bathroom to join Helena and Claudia in Artie's office. It hadn't changed much. There were a few newer computers, and an electronic chart, but the room was still very messy and stuffed with random historical objects. Myka rubbed a hand over her belly. She still couldn't get used to this feeling. There was a tiny human inside her and she had no connection to him. Him? Her? She didn't know.

So she sat down on a chair instead of thinking about that, well aware about the fact that Helena and Claudia were watching her concernedly. "Well, it's 2023? Ten years from my time? And you are still here, Claudia? And Pete, Steve, and Artie, too?"

Claudia nodded: "Yes, also, I'm care-"

Helena interrupted her immediately. "Claudia, I am think that we shouldn't tell her what happened in the years between her time and ours. I already think it's quite dangerous that she knows I am here." 

"Agent Wells, thank you for your concern." Claudia answered, sounding utterly serious. HG rolled her eyes at that and then opened her mouth. Apparently, she wanted to reply something, but she was interrupted by the door flying open. An older Steve Jinks came through it. He had lost hair in those ten years, but he was still Steve. In his hands, he was holding a little girl by the ankles. She was upside down, and seemed to enjoy it. "Look who visited me in the Darwin's aisle. I think you really should look better after your daughter, guys." He said in a concerned tone of voice, and then carefully lowered her to the ground.

The girl giggled while rising from the ground . Myka assumed she was about five or six years old. The child had black, curly hair and green eyes. Jumping onto Myka's lap the girl yelled "Mommy! I visited uncle Steve doing the inventory. No reasons for worries!"

Myka's eyes widened at those words. _Mommy._ "Well, ...I'm glad you are here,..." She started and then looked quickly into Helena's eyes, asking for help non-verbally. Helena raised an eyebrow, mouthing 'Sarah'.

"...Sarah!" The curly-haired woman finished.

"Sarah, what do you think about about going home to have ice cream and watch a cartoon?" Claudia quickly asked, rising from her chair.

Sarah looked at Myka. Myka nodded and said nervously: "That's okay. I'm okay with that... Sarah."

"I would love to, Aunt Claudia!" Sarah left Myka's lap, walking towards the redhead. Claudia took her hand, looking at Helena and then at Myka. "I think." She stated, "you should tell Steve, and then call Artie and Pete and talk with them about _the thing_."

"What thing, aunt Claudia?", Sarah asked.

"Nothing, darling," Helena replied quickly. Myka was intrigued about the way the Victorian was looking at the girl. Her face showed so much love an happiness, which caused Myka's heart to feel heavy.

The door closed behind Claudia and Sarah. Now, Steve looked first at Myka and then at Helena. "Okay. What's _'the thing'_?" He demanded to know, carefully gesturing quotation marks.

"That's my daughter?", Myka asked carefully.

"Yes, Myka. Why are you asking that? You and H-" Steve began but HG interrupted him hastily. "Steve, you are not talking to the Myka you know. She had an accident with a time travel artifact. This is a younger Myka from ten years ago in our Myka's body. And I don't think she needs more information than strictly necessary. Until we figure out how to send her back."

"That's _'the thing'_?" Steve asked, again gesturing quotation marks. "Myka got whammied and now we have Myka from 2013 sitting here?"

"Yes." Helena bowed her head.

"So, well. Why don't you neutralize the artifact so we can all go home?" The other agent shrugged, looking utterly confused.

Helena took the neutralization bag from the table to show it Steve. "We've already neutralized the artifact, Jinksy. It didn't help."


	3. Chapter 3

Claudia who was sat behind the computer sighed deeply . "How could it possibly be that there is an artifact in the Warehouse - which means that this artifact was once snagged, bagged and tagged - and we don't know anything about the artifact? There is no file, no note, there isn't anything in the computer. I even looked through historical data to see if there was anything described like this. There is nothing. _Nothing._ This watch doesn't exist!"

Steve answered, with his nose stuck in a file. " There isn't anything in the analogue files either."

Claudia nodded, "As I said, there is no evidence of this thingy existing anywhere."

Myka turned the watch in her gloved hands and inspected it. "It is just a small wrist watch. The dial is black, the numbers are as golden as the backside of it. The bracelet is black leather. Real leather. It looks a little worn out. Old. Well, it is an artifact. But there is nothing engraved or anything. It doesn't look special." She put the watch back into the bag.

They were doing research for hours, now. While Claudia and Steve were putting their noses into e-files and analogue files, Myka had decided to help a little and inspect the watch. Abigail had updated Artie and Pete via Farnsworth and was now busy with doing research for their artifact hunt. Because - of course - they both had managed to get into trouble. Gender swap with random citizens, finding a way to neutralize the artifact - they were busy and they wouldn't be back before tomorrow.

"Let me just try something," Myka said, pulling off one of her gloves.

"Myka?" Claudia stood up from her chair and then walked over to her.

"I came here by touching the watch. I had this big urge, as if touching the watch was the most important thing in my life and I mean... at that time I was searching for a much more important... thing. It seems that the touch is important." Myka turned the watch in her gloved hand.

"So you want to try again?" Claudia asked interestedly.

"At least I want to give it a try." Myka placed a finger on the golden backside of the watch, closing her eyes as if she was waiting for something. Then she opened them again.

"So?", Claudia asked, now sounding more eagerly.

"Still me." Myka put the watch in her non-gloved hand, slowly closing her fingers around it. Nothing happened. "This is useless. But at least I tried." She shrugged.

"Okay, Claudia. What do we know about this kind of artifacts?" She now asked.

"Well. The only experiences we made with time artifacts were at first ...the artifact that made time slower. You know, the thing with your ex-partner." Claudia explained. Myka nodded in reaction. "I remember that."

"The other thing," The redhead continued, "Was HG Wells' time machine. Ehm... you went back in time - Well, it was only your mind, taking over the body of another person. Didn't work longer than 22 hours and 19 minutes. Broke after usage."

"Okay.", Myka said, "22 hours and 19 minutes. I think because we can't find an explanation or a solution for this situation we just have to wait. Maybe I will be put back in my own time tomorrow? I think we should give it a try."

2023

Leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed, Myka watched Pete and Artie watching her. Artie's chin rested on his hand while he eyed her sceptically. Pete was in a similar position.

Pete hadn't changed much. He had lost a little hair and had now grey stains all over but he hadn't aged visibly. On the other side, Artie had left only little black hair, it was mostly white and the lines across his face told a lot of stories.

"Okay," Pete began, leaning forwards in his chair. "So, this one time we had sex...?"

Myka rolled her eyes. "Pete, we never had sex. There was this one time when we got whammied by these alcohol artifacts and we woke up naked in the same bed. _But_ we did a great job proving that we only took off our clothes to remember about Artie's toothbrush and Steve being bronzed." Artie looked at Pete in surprise.

Pete nodded profusely. "Okay, it's her. She rolled her eyes. It's definitely her."

Helena looked up from her notebook. "I had no doubt about this." Steve chuckled over a file.

"Okay, so what have you found out?" Artie asked seriously. "I hope you did some research before we came over, and you didn't spend time talking about your past self or something."

"Artie, we've got nothing." Steve mentioned desperately.

"Nothing?"

"It seems," Helena started, "that this artifact is not mentioned in any files or notes in the Warehouse. That seems quite strange to me because I think-"

Artie shook his head. "That's ridiculous. If it is in the Warehouse, it must have been snagged, bagged and tagged, so there must be some information about it."

Helena smiled carefully. "Well, it isn't."   
Pete looked at her. "Someone did a really bad job with the tagging part!"

"It seems that there also isn't any information about the snagging and bagging part, Pete. This artifact just exists and that's all. We don't know when it came to the Warehouse or who brought it there." Steve replied.

Artie grabbed the bag to open it. "Did you already inspect it?"

Myka nodded. "Yeah. There is nothing on it. No inscription, nothing special. It's just a watch. I already tried touching it a second time -" Artie inhaled air very loudly. " - but it didn't change anything."

A cell phone rang, causing everone to gaze awkwardly at each other. HG pulled hers out of the pocket of her jeans. "Excuse me." She said, holding the phone it to her ear. "Yes, Claudia? ... No. She cannot eat cereal for dinner. You already gave her ice cream. ...Myka doesn't like it when she eats that much sugar... No, Claudia." She sighed, "Yes, I can cook dinner. No, it's okay. I can cook. We can all eat in the B&B together. No, we did not find a way to bring her back, yet. Is Sarah anywhere near to you?... Don't tell her that, please! Okay, thank you. So, well, I think we will come over. I am hungry too... Yes, see you." She put her phone back into her pocket. "Claudia is asking for dinner. Sarah seems hungry, so I figured we could all eat something."

Steve agreed with her. "Maybe we can all think better after dinner. You can't think with an empty stomach."

Myka rose from her chair. "That sounds good. These chairs are killing my back. Who would have thought that being pregnant would be that painful?"

Helena smiled at her, but then looked down and closed her eyes. She seemed nervous. Myka caught herself staring at her. She really wanted to know what could have happened so that she had come back to the Warehouse. And she asked herself if they were good with each other. She couldn't concentrate properly without having her thoughts drifting towards pulling this version of Helena into a tight hug.

Dinner would be great. A distraction.


	4. Chapter 4

2023

During the intervening decade, the B&B had changed little. Abigail had brought her own charm to it but it was still the same atmosphere as back then when Leena had owned it.   
Myka stood in the kitchen and watched Helena cooking. This was a new situation for her, because she had never seen Helena doing housework.

There were paintings on the fridge. A child's hands had drawn their own endless wonder, causing Myka to think about Sarah sitting in Claudia's room upstairs and watching TV. She pondered over her future daughter lying on her front side on Claudia's bed, her eyes focused on the screen, the feet in the air. It had been a lovely picture. Now, Myka asked herself how she would bring a such lovely person into this world. And then she asked herself with whom.

She looked at Helena, trying to swallow down her own desire of asking her, of admitting that in this moment, she didn't wish for anything else than that this woman was the one she had a daughter and a life with.

Helena looked up from her frying pan, smiling shyly and asking: "Is everything alright with you?"

"Uhm, you know, I was just wondering..." Myka paused. She lowered her gaze to the ground and then went on talking. "When did you start cooking? I've never seen you doing things like this." She closed her eyes for a brief moment. This wasn't the question she had wanted to ask, it really wasn't. But she felt that asking the question she actually wanted to would mean that there could be a wrong answer, showing her future wasn't like she could wish for now, facing Helena right in front of her and being aware of Sarah upstairs.

"I thought I told you I met Nate at a cooking course?" Helena asked carefully, cutting tomatoes in little pieces.

"Oh." Myka escaped this sound of surprise by mistake. She felt that rubber band again around her neck, that urge to cry and her own desperate try to swallow it, "Yes, Nate." She swallowed. "How is Nate?"

Helena stopped cutting the tomatoes to meet her eyes. "Actually, I haven't seen him in a long time, but Adelaide is well. She goes to college, now. But Myka, I really don't think that I should tell you so much about the fut-"

A big bang from upstairs interrupted the Victorian. A supressed cry followed right afterwards, causing Claudia to yell. "Sarah." She sounded surprised and horrified.

In mere seconds, Helena was on the stairs taking two steps at a time. Myka followed her, a little slower, due to her pregnancy induced handicap. Upstairs, she found Sarah crying in Claudia's arms. When Helena entered their room, the Victorian crouched to pull the girl into a tight hug.

"It's alright," Claudia shrugged, looking as awkward as she looked worried. "She fell off the bed, but she is okay. It's just the shock, I think. Look, Sarah, Momma is here. HG, she is alright."

Myka stood in the doorframe and stared at Helena holding the crying girl in her arms, pressed to her chest. HG carefully softly to Sarah, stroking her hand over the girl's hair. Helena looked up slowly. And Myka couldn't take her gaze away from her. Their eyes met. And Myka knew. It was a revelation: Sarah was their daughter.  
Helena reached for the doorknob, pressing her hand against it so the door closed right in Myka's face.  
_____________________________________________

2013

"I think it's okay if you sleep in Myka's room." Claudia muttered, while opening the door to the mentioned room. "I mean... your room. I mean _her_ room. I mean... -it's complicated and my brain hurts when I think about it."

"It's okay, Claudia. I understand what you want to say." Myka smiled, pulling the redhead into a hug.

"Wait, you _hug_? We hug? You don't _hug_!" Claudia winced, pulling back. "Is everything alright. Do you...? Do you kind of miss me? Am I alright? Am I alive? Please, Mykes, don't tell me I'm dead or crazy or-"

"Claudia, everything is alright. Don't worry." The older smiled quickly at her and then walked into her room. Inside, she paused for a moment, looking around carefully. "Oh, I remember this. It feels good to see that again."

"What do you mean 'see your room again'? Aren't you living here anymore? Did you...Did you again leave the Warehouse, Mykes?" Claudia's voices cracked. "Please tell me you didn't leave the warehouse."

"Claudia, if I had left the Warehouse I couldn't have had an accident with an artifact in it, could I?" Myka sat down on the bed, smiling mischievously at the redhead whose face still showed that she was skeptical. "I just don't live at the B&B anymore. That's all."

"Why?!" Claudia sounded utterly confused, causing Myka to sigh. How could she possibly explain this without telling too much? "Because I live in a house near the B&B."

Claudia leaned on the doorframe and looked confused: "Why would you...?"

The older woman interrupted her. "Claudia! We don't talk about the future."

The raised an eyebrow, looking like she had figured everything out. "Because you are with someone!"

"Sorry?" Myka only gaped at the girl's words.

Who raised her hands, jumping on the older agent's bed. "You have found someone! You are in looove! Tell me everything!"

"Claudia!", Myka yelled, "I won't tell you anything about the future!"

"That's basically a yes."

"Claudia!"

"This proves its a yes."  
_________________________________________

2023

Every member of the Warehouse family around the dining table ate in awkward silence. Chewing noises and the sound of silverware interacting with food were filling the room.

Sarah finished her last bite, looking at Myka. "Mommy, why is everyone so quiet?"

Myka stared at her plate. Her head was filled with so many questions and thoughts so that she didn't recognize the question.

"Mommy...?" The girl asked again, now more carefully, causing Myka's head to snap up.

"Hm?... What? Sorry, Sarah." Myka eyed her awkwardly. "I got lost in thought."

"Mommy is tired, honey.", Helena joined the conversation from the other side of the table.

"Yes. We are all tired." Artie agreed, shooting careful glances at everyone. "It's been a rough day. Aren't you tired, Sarah?" The girl shook her head, apparently completely oblivious about the awkwardness of this conversation. "No."

Pete laughed. "Wanna watch some cartoons after dinner, Sarah?"

"YES!" The girl exclaimed excitedly.

"I've heard you visited Uncle Steve today in the Warehouse?" Artie asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yes. I was there with Aunt Claudia-" Sarah started.

"Don't 'aunt' me, Sarah. You know I feel old when you say that." Claudia said between two bites, causing Artie to chuckle.

"I was there with Claudia, Momma and Mommy and I was cur-curious about all the curiosities again." Sarah's voices faded out a little.

"And what did we say about being curious in the Warehouse, Sarah?" Helena put her fork aside.

"Not without an adult." Sarah mumbled.

"Exactly." The Victorian said naturally, smiling brightly at the girl.

Myka couldn't help but stare at Helena and Sarah. Although Helena was lecturing the girl she could feel the bond between them and she was starting to feel bound to them herself. Her thoughts started circling around her own life, her desire for Helena, about having a life with her. Not that it meant children. But anything that would mean HG in her life was something Myka wished for.

Sarah looked so much like Helena. Her jawline and her lips were definitely Helena's, her hair was the same colour and still...curly hair and green eyes. There was a question forming in Myka's head but she didn't feel bold enough to ask it.

"I think we should talk later about bringing your daughter to the Warehouse, HG. I still don't know if this is such a good idea." Abigail looked concernedly at the writer.

"Myka just picked her up from school and wanted to get some files from the Warehouse, when it happened, Abigail. She intended to bring her home quickly.", HG replied easily.

"It's okay, Abby." Sarah told the former therapist, sounding pretty confident about this topic "The warehouse likes me."

"What do you mean, ferret?" Abigail's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"It just...it likes me. I feel that it likes me. And then I smelled apples and I felt home and went to the aisles. I didn't get lost. I knew where I was going and the Warehouse knew that, too." The girl nodded, "It's safe." Claudia looked at her in surprise: "You smelled apples?"

"Yes." Helena and Claudia exchanged a concerned look.

"Well" Steve finally put his fork away."Everything is alright, because I found her and we are all safe and happy now." He looked at Myka, "Well mostly..."  
_________________________________________

Pete and Sarah were upstairs, watching their promised cartoons together. Abigail followed them (she showed a liking for cartoons) while Artie, Steve and Claudia were working through files again. They looked frustrated. Myka and Helena had cleared the table and now put the dishes into the dishwasher.

There was still tension, an unasked question, and Myka found all her thoughts spinning around the little lovely girl she just had met. Carefully, she had just put the last plate into the dishwasher. Thoughtfully, she stroked with her hand over her belly, while eyeing Helena - who was standing with her back to Myka to wash the frying pan in the sink. "She is perfect." The American mumbled.

Helena paused for a brief moment, then she nodded. "Yes, she is."

"Did you...? Did I..? I mean,...she looks so much like you, but there is also...the hair, the eyes, she looks like both of us." Myka tip-toed around her question.

"If you want to ask, who of us gave birth to her: It was me.", Helena said straight-forwardly.

"Okay. But why...? I mean... I'm so sorry for being curious, but I really _am_ that curious. She seems to be such a wonderful person and... I see so much of myself in her. I can't help myself but ask this question."

Helena put the frying pan away to turn around. She nodded and leaned against the counter. Then she looked Myka in the eyes. "It was an accident. With an artifact," she spoke. "More or less in the Warehouse. I will not tell you exactly what happened, Myka. All you need to know is that you are as much her mother as I am. I just gave birth to her, but she is both of us."

Myka nodded. "Okay." She looked down, rubbing her hands nervously. Her gaze fell on the ring on her finger. "Are we...? Are we married?"

Helena sucked in the air loudly at this question. Then, she closed her eyes briefly, nodding. "Yes."

Myka's heart fluttered at this revelation. This information overwhelmed her. She was married to H.G. Wells. Being in love with was already completely out of her mind. She just was in a state where she could admit that she was, but being married to her? That was too much.

"When did you come back? When did you leave Nate?" Myka now asked, interested in this topic. She had to know.

"Well, Myka," HG cleared her throat thoroughly before she continued, "It is obvious that I did leave Nate to come back to the Warehouse. And to you. But I think that is all you need to know. For the moment anyway. It's just that I think too much information could change something, ruin something. It seemed that I could change the destiny of my Christina by time travelling with my machine into the past. But you have come to the future. And that's entirely different. So we still don't know what we are dealing with right now. I'm scared.... I'm sorry." Sighing deeply, Helena turned around again to continue washing the frying pan. There seemed to be a stain that needed more attention. 

It was silent for a while. Myka just stood there watching Helena's back, but she didn't feel a need to break the silence.

When Helena dried the pan with a towel, she looked carefully at Myka. "I think, it's okay if you sleep at our place tonight. Sarah will ask questions if you don't and since we don't have rooms in the B&B any more..."

"Our place?", Myka asked.

"Yes." Helena replied with a slight smile on her face. "Our home."


	5. Chapter 5

2023

Myka was waiting in the hall of the B&B.

Helena walked down the stairs, Sarah sleeping in her arms. The girl had wrapped her hands around Helena's neck, her head was resting at the side of it, her legs wrapped around the Victorian's waist. Myka chuckled quietly as she watched Helena notice that she forgot to put on her shoes - _before_ she had gone upstairs to pick up her daughter.

Looking little awkward, Helena stood in front of her boots and looked at Myka, searching for help.

Because of ... this pregnancy problem, Myka didn't want to carry Sarah, thinking about the girl's weight and her own hurting back - clearly a handicap. So the curly-haired woman kneeled down cumbersomely in front of HGand put a boot on the foot the older woman was holding up.

They did the same with the other foot, Myka feeling more and more nervous while doing it.

"You don't need to lace them right now." Helena mentioned. "It's not very far. If I concentrate properly, I can walk with unlaced shoes. Thank you very much."

They shot a quick last look into the living room, where Abigail and Claudia sat on the couch. talking quietly.

"Good night, you two." Helena tried to wave at them, failing poorly.

Abigail waved her hand with a slight smile. Claudia next to her nodded at them: "Good night. Please come over tomorrow after you have brought Sarah to school. We have to find a solution for this."

Outside, Myka walked next to Helena in silence. They didn't really need to talk. Sarah was snoring quietly in Helena's arms.

"At the end of the road on the left." Helena mentioned, nodding with her head into the mentioned direction.

It was a small, white house with a high roof and two stories, light turned on next to the main door, the gravel path from the fence to the door was surrounded by bushes and little trees.

Myka carefully opened the fence gate for Helena, trying to be as helpful as possible. But on the path, HG awkwardly tried to get something out of the pocket of her jeans while still holding Sarah. She failed - of course - so she had to adress the curly-haired woman:

"I can't get my keys. Could you maybe... ?"

Myka stepped towards her and then carefully slipped a hand in Helena's pocket. For her it was the most intimate act she had ever done with Helena - and well, she had once been in her arms while hanging from a roof with the help of a grappler. So Myka swallowed, looking into Helena's eyes while pulling the keys out of the writer's pocket. Myka shivered a little. This wasn't _her_ Helena. It was clearly Helena, but another one from the future and this caused Myka to convince hersel that shouldn't think about her in _this_ way. _This_ Helena was married - well, yes, to Myka's own older self - but she was different from the Helena Myka fell in love with (in _love _? Had Myka just...? She sighed internally. Yes, it was about time to admit this to herself). _This_ Helena was calmer, and less impulsive. She seemed to be in balance with herself, something Myka had never seen on the Helena in 2013.__

__"It's the one with the blue rubber on it."Helena mentioned, avoiding Myka's gaze._ _

__Myka unlocked and then pushed the door open, so HG could enter. Without hesitation Helena walked up the wooden stairs. While she did that, Myka took the chance to look a little around in the hall. It smelled a bit like cinnamon in here. There was a little cupboard on one side, stacks of books placed on it. On the other side: a wardrobe and a mirror, simple but useful._ _

__Now, Myka followed Helena upstairs into Sarah's room right ahead to the stairs. There Helena had placed her daughter on the bed at the wall, now managing to carefully pull off her daughter's clothes to put on a pajama._ _

__The girl shifted sligthly on the bed and peeked through half-open eyes at Helena and then at Myka._ _

__"Story?" She asked drowsily._ _

__"Darling, you are already sleeping." Helena responded with a smile. "You can't even put your pajama on yourself right now. I fear that tonight, we have to skip the story. But I promise we will continue the story tomorrow - as always. If we are home."_ _

__Sarah nodded slowly - but she was also already snoring again. She had fallen asleep again while Helena had talked._ _

__With a smirk, Helena put the blanket over her daughter and then took a stuffed giraffe from a shelf. She pressed it under Sarah's arm._ _

__Quietly Myka and HG left the room. In the hall, HG opened a door next to Sarah's room._ _

__"Bathroom." She stated quietly. " Be careful with the hot water, sometimes it doesn't last for two people." Now, the writer sighed deeply. "You can sleep in our bedroom, I'll be on the couch downstairs in the office room." She opened another door, suggesting Myka to follow her inside. Helena took one of the bet sheets and a pillow from the king-sized bed in the room. Apparently, she did this to take them with her downstairs. Then, the Victorian pointed at the closet. "You can take one of Myka's pajamas or shirts for tonight. Take whatever you want. I will be downstairs if you need something."_ _

__Myka nodded as Helena started walking out of the room. "Good night, Helena." She whispered._ _

__Helena froze, looking over her shoulder. "Good night, Myka. Sleep well." But they still avoided each other's gaze. So Myka cleared her throat._ _

__"Helena?"_ _

__"Yes?" The Victorian still didn't really look at her._ _

__"Thank you."_ _

__Finally, Helena turned fully around to look at her. She smiled shyly and then she left the room, closing the door behind her._ _

___________________________________________________ _

_It was dark as the night. She couldn't see her own right hand she held in front of her face. Myka had no idea how she got here and what she was doing here, but she had the feeling that it was very important and that she had to wait for the right time.She noticed a ticking noise. Her first thoughts spun around a bomb in the Warehouse and Helena outside of a blue barrier, thanking her. "I smell apples."_

_But that had been in another time.Stop.That hadn't even happened in another time. It had never happened. But Myka was able to remember this incident like it really did happen. She was aware of Artie who had turned back time to undo what Walter Sykes' bomb had caused. Why was Myka able to remember this?But then the agent realised that she wasn't here for this incident, but for another reason.The ticking noise got louder and now, Myka became aware of the fact that she was holding something in her left hand. It was cold, a could shape with leader stripes. It was the wrist watch!_

_Myka gasped quietly at the realisation._

_"Hello?" A female voice asked somewhere behind her. "Is anybody there?"_

_Somebody seemed to have noticed the noise that had escaped the agent's throat._

_"Uhm, yes. I am over here." Myka turned around and stepped into the direction where she assumed the voice to come from._

_"I can't see anything" The other woman mentioned._

_Myka had the feeling she knew that voice almost too well - although it was also completely strange to her._

_"Me neither" Myka responded._

_Carefully, she moved further. "I'm walking towards you... I mean, I'm walking in the direction you seem to be. I'lI keep talking so I won't bump into you."_

_After a few metres, the exclamation of a "Stop!" from the voice - now directly in front of her - stopped the agent._

_Myka could hear the other woman breathe and also feel it on her skin.Myka reached out a hand, searching, and then touched what she found: The mysterious woman's shoulder._

_Suddenly there was light. It wasn't bright but Myka could now see the person she had touched carefully. It was like she was looking into a mirror: she touched herself, or more another version of herself._

_"Woah." The other Myka gasped surprisedly. "That's strange."_

_Myka watched her other self giving her own hand a careful look._

_She seemed to recognise the object in it."The wrist watch."_

_"Pardon?" Myka's eyebrows furrowed in confusion._

_"It's the wrist watch that made me travel through time" The other version explained._

_"No, this can't be." Myka replied confusedly. "I've got the watch with me." She raised her hand to present the object in question._

_The watches in their hands looked exactly the same. The two Mykas stared at each other's hands and then looked into each other's eyes in surprise._

_"NO!" Suddenly, there was another female voice next to them, loudly yelling. This voice was completely different from their own. Both agents turned around to stare into the darkness around them._

_"Hello?" Myka asked carefully again, now a little louder._

_"NO!" The female voice yelled again, apparently ignoring Myka's careful attempt to communicate with her. "That is not right. It shouldn't be like this. It doesn't work! Why doesn't it work?" Someone moved in the shadows, but it was too dark for them to see this person properly._

_"Are you alright?" Myka asked, now a little concered._

_"Can we help you?" The other Myka joined the - still very one-sided - conversation. Somebody stepped into their light very quickly. It was a woman, but Myka couldn't see her face because it was covered in shadows._

_"That's not right" The mysterious third woman ranted. "You are not supposed to be here. You aren't allowed to be here. I didn't want to bring you here! That's not right! Move! Go away!"_

_Myka wanted to take a step into her direction but then something inside her stomach moved, waking up from her dream._

Myka jolted upright in bed when she woke up. She needed a few moments to bring back to her mind where exactly she currenly was. _This_ was not her bed, it smelled differently. And then, there was something was moving heavily inside her stomach.  
The agent shook her head, trying hard to bring back her - usually eidetic, right? - memory. As it came back, she sighed at the already known but still weird revelation: She had travelled through time, into the future. And currently , she was lying on her own in Helena's bed - which was strange. In _this_ future she was married to H.G. Wells and that thing inside her belly - which was slightly kicking and poking her - that was a fetus playing soccer.

She sighed while she pondered over the dream she had had. What did it mean?

The alarm clock on the nightstand told her it was almost three in the morning. Myka was more than awake: Her heart beat like it wanted to go to the Olympics and she was breathing heavily  
Quickly, Myka left the bed. Maybe she could find some tea or milk in Helena's house. She needed something to calm down.  
After she had walked downstairs, she opened the big slide door in the hall carefully, taking a glimpse into the room behind it.  
The living room, it seemed. To the left there was a kitchen and to the right a door standing open. While walking into the kitchen, Myka glanced through the door: an office room with two desks, between them a foldout couch with Helena on it, moving between the sheets.

Helena slowly sat up on the couch, staring confusedly at Myka. She looked a little dizzy, it seemed that Myka had just woken her. The American could almost watch Helena slowly remembering what had happened.  
So she gave the writer a little time to collect herself and decided to walk into the kitchen.  
Myka found milk in the fridge, and a pot somewhere next to the sink. Quietly, the American poured some milk into the pot, placing it on the stove. When she turned on the stove, she could hear Helena take position next to her.

"Are you alright?" The Victorian asked carefully.

"Yes, I just...I just didn't sleep very well. And I thought I could make myself some warm milk." Myka shrugged a little, pursing her lips.

"Alright." It seemed Helena didn't really know what to say.

"There is also somebody ... well, playing soccer inside my stomach... and I'm really not used to sharing my body with another person" Myka explained. "They won't let me sleep."  
Carefully, Myka dipped one finger into the milk to feel if it was warm already. Helena walked towards her other side and then reached to one of the higher cupboards.  
She wore only a shirt that barely reached her thighs. So when she opened the cupboard, the shirt moved a little higher, revealing an interesting part of Helena's back. Myka caught herself staring. Her cheeks got hot, she quickly forced her eyes away, rubbing the back of her neck excessively.

Helena took a mug out of the cupboard to place it next to the stove.  
"He's very active for this phase of pregnancy" She mentioned.

Myka couldn't follow her thoughts. "Who?"

"That soccer player inside your stomach?" HG suggested.

"Oh, yes. It's five months, now?" The American asked thoughtfully.

"Yes, we already prepare for a very active child." Helena chuckled. "That you can already feel him is interesting..."

"He?" Myka's eyebrows darted up in surprise.

"Well, that second round wasn't an accident." The Victorian explained and shrugged. "This time we didn't want the Warehouse to make a decision for us." She nodded while filling Myka's mug with milk. "But we had a little help, this time: science and doctors." 

"Okay." Myka chewed on her bottom lip, pondering over the older woman's words. Thoughtfully, she looked down at her slightly swollen stomach. "Who is the father?"

Helena smiled, putting a finger over her lips. She winked mischievously.

"Sorry." Myka sighed, "I didn't want to be too curious."

Helena moved a chair from the counter, suggesting the American to sit down.  
Myka easily did as asked, while Helena placed the mug right in front of her.

"Do you want to tell me why you didn't sleep very well?" The Victorian asked, sounding more carefully, now.

Myka sighed. "I had a really intense dream." She mumbled.

"A nightmare?" Helena raised an eyebrow at her, apparently she was suprised.

"No, not really." Myka didn't really know what to tell her. "It just was intense. And-" She paused to choose her words carefully. "And it had something to do with the wrist watch. With the artifact."  
Helena's eyes widened at her words. Quickly, she turned around to opened a drawer. She was looking for something which came out to be a small notebook and a pencil.  
"You should write that down." She stated, holding both objects up towards Myka.

"Sorry?" Myka was a little at a loss about the purpose of HG's suggestion.

Helena placed the objects right in front of her on the kitchen's counter.  
"When I came back to the Warehouse, I had very intense dreams. Nightmares, actually. While I was having my... therapy meetings with Abigail, she told me to write them down right after waking up to be able to remember them. Only then we could be able to discuss them properly. When you wait longer until you start taking notes, you could probably lose details. I mean, yes, you're the woman with the eye for the details and yes, you have that eidetic memory. But dreams work differently, right?"

"You did therapy with Abigail?", Myka asked surprisedly. This could be an explanation for Helena being the way she was now. This calm...

"I needed somebody to talk with - who wasn't you.", Helena replied carefully, eyeing the notebook on the counter.  
"Please write everything down you can remember. It could be important since you mentioned that artifact. We'll see tomorrow what we could do with this information." The Victorian nodded thoughtfully.  
"I will go back to bed. Take the time you need. But I think I'll need a little more sleep." Helena pressed her lips into Myka's hair. The American winced in reaction, her eyes widened. She stared at the Victorian who walked into the office room without another word. Deeply in mind, Myka placed a hand on the spot where Helena's lips had touched her head. She stared a few minutes into empty space, out of words. When her mind was clearer again, she took the pencil to start writing.


	6. Chapter 6

2013

After finishing breakfast with the others, Myka had decided to sit down on the couch in the B&B with a laptop on her knees. Steve had gone to the Warehouse. Claudia and Abigail spent their time doing casual things in the B&B without looking like they were observing Myka. They were waiting for the 22 hours and 19 minutes to be over, so they confirm that the artifact didn't work like H.G. Well's time machine.

Myka had googled everything about time travel, including science, fiction, science-fiction, and historical people related to it.

Of course almost everything led to H.G. Wells' time machine in the end. And Myka couldn't help thinking that it might be a good idea to talk to her. Immediatly, she shoved that idea aside. Talking to Helena in this time wasn't really a good idea. Myka was afraid of complicating things. She knew what was happening in Helena's mind during this time and she didn't want to ruin it.

Shortly before noon, Pete and Artie came back from their artifact hunt.

Immediately, noise and chaos started ruling the B&B. Claudia ran into the hall to welcome them both, while Abigail tried to convince Artie to talk to her in private.

Pete rushed into the living room. "Okay, where is she?"

"I'm here, Pete!" Myka yelled, being aware of what he was up to.

Pete paused, hands on hips, and give her a careful and skeptical look.

"You don't look older" He shrugged.

"Pete, it's the same thing like with H.G.'s time machine. I didn't take my body with me. I'm just Myka from 2023 in a younger Myka's body." Myka explained the situation.

Pete looked at Artie who just had joined them.

"We should ask her a question only Myka could answer."

"Pete." Claudia entered the room, sounding annoyed. "This is really Myka."

Myka rose from the couch and came over to them.

"I don't know" Pete responded. "It must be something very personal. Something only we know. Maybe something intimate." He smiled. "Like that one time we 'whammied' each other."

"We. Did. Never. Whammy. Each other" Myka hissed at him, punching him with every word.

"Okay, it's definitely her." Pete assured Artie, rubbing his arm. "You still do that?"

"With pleasure" Myka answered, grinning mischievously.

"Peeps!" Claudia interrupted their teasing. "Let's just look at the time! I think the 22 hours and 19 minutes should be over in the next 20 minutes. We didn't get the exact point when Myka came to our time, so we just have to wait a little." The redhead looked at her own wrist watch.

Myka sat down on the couch again, carefully looking at the others. "I still haven't found out anything about the watch. I even searched for anything related to the dream I had tonight."

"Dream?" Claudia asked, not looking up from her watch.

Myka cleared her throat. "Well, I was in a completely dark room with the artifact in my hand-"

Artie stepped towards her. "With the artifact?" He asked, interrupting her.

"Yes." Myka shrugged. 

"Tell me everything about that dream." Artie demanded. "Maybe it is related to the artifact and could possibly help." 

Myka started talking. The dark room. The artifact in her hand. She told them about the other Myka.

"She seemed to be younger than me and she also had the same artifact in her hand." The curly-haired woman stated thoughtfully.

"Maybe it's some kind of suppressed shadow of Myka's soul which is usually in her body" Claudia guessed and then looked down at her watch again.

"Maybe it's a battle in her own mind?" Pete suggested.

"No, there was no battle. She actually spoke to me. And she seemed to be aware of the situation." Myka mentioned. "She mentioned the watch and understood when I talked about the relationship between the watch and time travel."

"Hmmmm" made Pete.

"Do you want to say something, Pete?" Artie asked innocently.

"I just asked myself something." The other man told him. "If Myka from the future is with us, what is actually happening to her body in the future?"

"Excuse me?" The older man looked at him flabbergastedly.

"Well, back when Myka and I were using H.G.'s time machine, the time here went on. We were unconscious for those 22 hours and 19 minutes, so H.G. and Claudia had to play babysitter for us." Pete explained.

"That's right!" Claudia laughed in reaction to his words.

"So, it's only a theory. But, well, our Myka touched this watch - Claudia mentioned it - and you told us that in the future you felt an urge to do the same. What if this artifact actually made you swap places?" Pete suggested. 

Artie's eyes had widened while he had listened to his friend. "Pete, that is actually pretty intelligent."

"You sound surprised." Pete narrowed his eyes at him.

"Well..." The other man shrugged.

"I was just hunting another artifact, that ...uhm... swapped.... things. It's just some kind of assumption." Pete mumbled. "So it could be that our Myka is in the future while this Myka is with u-"

"But," Myka interrupted him. "there was another person in my dream."

"Really?" Claudia asked, eyes still pinned to the watch.

"Yes." Myka nodded profusely, still in thought. "It was a woman, but I couldn't see her properly, it was too dark. She seemed younger than me, smaller and she yelled that we were not supposed to be there and she didn't want to bring us there."

"To bring you there." Artie mumbled thoughtfully.

"That's creepy." Claudia looked up from her watch. "Well, your time's up. You've now been here for more than 22 hours and 19 minutes. I checked my watch yesterday a little after you showed up. So that time is definitely over now."

Myka sighed disappointedly. "It would have been too good to be true."

A Farnsworth buzzed loudly. Claudia pulled hers out and opened it: it was Steve.

"Guys, we've got a ping" He said nervously.

________________________________________

"That's strange!" Myka said later in Artie's office. "I can remember all our cases..."

"You don't say" Pete replied from his chair. He sat besides Steve who just printed out the files.

"But I can't remember that we had a case so shortly after the gender swap artifact. I can exactly remember how you brought that artifact home and how Artie joked because of an accident with Pete and..." Myka was interrupted by her partner.

"Let's not talk about this." He quickly stated.

"But then we had a few silent days before a new artifact showed up" Myka finished her thought.

Artie looked at her concernedly. "Maybe you've changed something by showing up?"

"I didn't leave the Warehouse." Myka scrunched her nose."Or the B&B, how could I possibly have changed something?" 

Steve started handing out the files. Myka opened hers and while reading, she exclaimed:

"No!"

"What is it, Mykes?" Pete asked, apparently surprised.

"Okay, let me get this straight." Her partner glared at him. "For some reason, I travel through time with an artifact we don't know anything about. And then, there is an abnormal case with an artifact in the town in which the author who wrote the most famous story about time travel is living?" Myka shook her head.

"It's in Boone?" Pete almost spat his coffee over his file. "Why didn't you say that, Steve?"

"Oh, I was just distracted by the other circumstances." The other man shrugged a little awkwardly.

Claudia looked up from her file. "Okay, what is happening there exactly?"

"There are a lot of people showing up in the hospital and at the police station. They are very confused but they don't show any symptoms about metal illness or other disorders." Jinksy updated them on the artifact case.

"How many people?" Myka asked.

"That's exactly the problem." He pursed his lips. "The whole city is affected. Everyone in the city talks about it, even the nurses and doctors and policemen are the same way - as confused as the others in the town."

"What do you mean by 'it'?" Pete asked.

Steve nodded and made a pause: "Okay, that maybe found your assumption that it has something to do with _the_ artifact, Myka. Everybody in this town talks about missing time."

"Missing time?" Myka shot Steve an anxious and confused look.

He pointed at the file in her hands. "Well, they are missing one day of their life. Everybody misses the same day. They went to bed on Monday evening and woke up on Wednesday thinking it was Tuesday."

Immediately, Myka started making plans. "Okay, Claudia and Pete, I think you should go to Boone, Wisconsin, and look what's up there and if it's related in any way to my case-" She was interrupted by Pete, who stood up from his chair. "No way, you are coming with us."

"Pardon me?" She asked, scrunching her nose.

"Mykes, if this is in any way related to your case then you should be with us." Her partner suggested. "Your current - well - time state... condition.... seems to be stable. And this case could be related to your artifact." He took a deep breath, "And we could meet HG, and since you are the only person who really knows how to speak with her..."

"Pete, I would prefer not to meet Helena." Myka's voice was quiet.

"Why? Isn't she your friend anymore in the future?" Pete furrowed his confusedly.

"No, we _are_ friends." Myka smiled carefully. "Good _friends_ actually. But I know that she is going through a very bad phase in this time and I think if I would show up, it could ruin something about that."

"In which way?" Her partner didn't look any more enlightened.

"In a 'we don't talk about the future'-way" Myka said strictly.

"Well," Claudia cleared her throat. "I think it would be a good idea to have you with us. Wouldn't it, Artie?"

Artie had watched the whole conversation quietly.

"I've got a vibe that Myka should be there!" Pete mentioned.

"Myka, Pete and Claudia. You three are going to Boone, Wisconsin" Artie said bluntly.

"But Artie-" Myka wanted to object, but he didn't give her a chance to do that.

"That's my decision, Myka. You don't need to talk to H.G. if you don't want to. But you need to be there. This case could be related to you and since Pete is having vibes..." The eldery man shrugged. "Well, you should be there. Also: take that artifact with you. And you can start with the research in the hospital in Boone, I think. Maybe you can find some clues."  
__________________________________________________

Earlier that morning, 2013, Boone

When Helena woke up, she knew something was wrong. She could feel it - but she couldn't explain why.

When she sat up in the bed, she felt a little dizzy, it was the same dizziness she had felt when she had used her time machine for the first time. Slowly, she massaged her temples, hoping that the nausea which came up with the dizziness would leave.

The Victorian looked at the alarm clock. It was time to start the day and get Adelaide to school before going to work. Next to Helena, Nate slowly moved between the sheets, his eyebrows twitching. Helena got up very quietly so she wouldn't wake him.

After she had taken a shower she put on some clothes and then went down the stairs, her hair still wet.

In the living room, she met Adelaide, who was watching the news on TV and had cereal for breakfast.

"Good morning, darling. I hope you've slept well." Helena greeted her, walking over to the kitchen counter to set up some coffee.

The dizziness, again.

"Morning, Helena." Adelaide said. The girl had started calling her this right after the Victorian had told her the real story about her life. It made Helena feel good, she didn't like really like hiding behind the name Emily, even though it was necessary, now. Especially being called this by people she loved felt peculiar.

"Something strange is going on." The girl on the couch mentioned, staring at the TV screen.

"Really?" Helena asked in thought, putting her phone in front of her on the counter and running her fingers over the touch screen to open today's schedule. She had some plans for the afternoon and wanted to check on her appointments.

_Strange._ Her phone was showing her the schedule for the _next_ day. Helena flipped a page back to Tuesday. The schedule was grey like the day had already gone by.

"There are some people at the police station and at the hospital who are talking crazy." Adelaide told her.

"That sounds curious" Helena replied, not really listening. _Bloody little gadget_ , she thought, _I would really like to see today's schedule in a proper way._

"The date on the TV is wrong and also in the news. They are currently talking about how everything's date in the city is wrong." Adelaide seemed to be very concerned.

Now, Helena looked up in surprise. "The dates are wrong?"

"Yes, everything says it's Wednesday, but it's Tuesday." The child nodded.

_Well_ , Helena thought, _this would explain that._

She switched to her phones settings and set the correct day: Tuesday.

Adelaide gasped between two spoons of cereal.

"What's happening, darling?" Helena asked, while browsing through her schedule.

Adelaide turned the TV louder. The news anchor just held a speech:

"...It was just confirmed that the wrong dates on everyone's electronic devices are not wrong. Actually, the whole city of Boone in Wisconsin is missing a whole day. People who are working outside of the town were reported as skipping work on Tuesday by their employers.

There is no explanation for this, yet. The police told us to emphasise that everybody should stay calm and not panic..."

Helena stared at the screen, flabbergasted. The whole town was missing a day? She pondered for a few seconds about this, finding only one possible conclusion: And artifact must be involved.

Something was wrong with the time. That would also explain her dizziness and why she felt like back when she had used her time machine.

Suddenly, the Victorian heard a big car stopping in front of her house. Sighing deeply, she closed her eyes. Artifact also meant Warehouse and since she was the only person in Boone who ever had dealt with the manipulation of time, she was sure the Warehouse would send a team of agents to her.

She sighed for a second time. Helena had no need to meet Myka again right now. Her last visit had slightly broken the tiny world she was currently living in and well, currently, Helena really liked that world. Also, what she had felt then - seeing Myka again - had confused her even more about how she really wanted to live and who she wanted to share her life with.

"Adelaide, can you get ready for school, please?" Helena asked carefully while walking over to the front door. "I'm just going outside to pick up the newspaper. I will also see if I find someone to talk about what we just saw on TV."

"Okay, Helena." The writer heared Adelaide jump up from the couch.

Carefully, Helena opened the door and spotted the SUV on the other side of the street immediately. It was definitely a car Warehouse agents would drive - Myka would drive. Barefoot, Helena left the house to cross the street.

The car was empty, so she surrounded it, already talking.

"I know what you think, but I have absolutely nothing to do with the missing-" She froze as she became aware that it wasn't Myka or Pete or any Warehouse agent HG knew, who was standing behind the car.

It was a woman in black clothes, sunglasses and a black wool hat covering her face and hair. And she pointed a gun in both her hands at Helena. 

Helena raised her hands slowly, surveying the other woman thoroughly. "Careful." She told her, unsure if she was threatening or pleading.

She analysed the mysterious woman in mere seconds. She was a little taller than Helena, but had a similar body structure. The Victorian couldn't see her whole face, but that woman's jaws were working hard, a clear sign that she was put under stress.

There was something in the left pocket of her black jeans. Also there was a bulge under the right side of her black jacket.

"Get in the car" The woman demanded in an utterly throaty voice.

Now Helena became curious. She looked at the woman surprisedly, asking: "Pardon me?"

The woman immediately took a few steps into her direction, one hand grabbing Helena by the shoulder. She tried to pressed Helena down, holding the gun to her face. "Get in the car."

Helena started analysing the woman's strength right away. She seemed to be an equal opponent. This could get hard, but maybe it was possible.

At first, the Victorian forcefully pressed her elbow into the woman's side.

"Uff." Her opponent tumbled back with her gun still pointing straight to Helena's face, but swaying dangerously. Helena used this chance, got up from her half ducking position - the other woman had more or less forced her to take it - and kicked the woman's gun hand with her right foot. The gun flew through the air and then hit the ground with a clank.

The surprise on the woman's face vanished as soon as Helena attacked her more properly. Now HG wasn't able to hit her again. The woman must have been skilled in Kenpo, because she seemed to anticipate every last one of Helena's moves.

When Helena tried to hit her with her elbow, the grabbed her by the shoulder again, using the energy of Helena's movement to roll her over on the lawn next to them.

Hitting the ground hard, Helena felt a little crack in her wrist. She gasped at the slight pain.

A few seconds later the Victorian felt an arm wrap around her body her from behind. The arm pressed her under her ribcage so she had problems breathing properly.

She was pulled up. Apparently, the other woman tried to drag her to the car. Helena's legs dangled in the air as she started punching the arm that had her in its might.

With all her strength, she hit the woman with her elbow in the face, once, twice, feeling how the glasses on broke. And then, the woman let her go, gasping surprisedly.

On the grass again, Helena fought for her breath, watching the woman while she tried to regain her strength.

With furrowed eyebrows, her opponent ripped the glasses from her face, pressing her other hand to her cheek. Helena watched the surprise grow on her face as the looked at her own hand, finding blood on it. With her lips pursed she looked up at Helena, grabbing under her jacket and pulling something out.

HG gasped. It was a tesla.

Shocked, Helena looked into the other woman's face: a cut was close to her eye, she looked astonished, tired and desperate, with blood running down her cheek.

In the moment the stranger pointed her stun gun at Helena - who was lying on the grass, unable to move - the Victorian's eyes found the other woman's.

They were green.

After Helena - mesmerised by the feeling to know that woman - noticed the first flash emerging from the Tesla, everything went black.


	7. Chapter 7

2013, much later that same day, Boone

Myka stretched her back, feeling utterly annoyed. They had been at the small hospital in Boone for a long time - but unable to get any further information.

Everyone in Boone seemed to miss a day, nobody could explainwhy and nobody had a clue what had happened to the Boone's inhabitants during that missing day. Some people reacted aggressive, some were just confused. In the hospital, Myka had listened to a lot of conspiracy theories by the citizens, but there wasn't anything that made sense. As usual.

Now, Claudia, Pete and Myka were driving to the police station, looking forward to find some clues.

In front of the police station, a lot of citizens stood in little groups, talking, debating, looking utterly flustered. Some people seemed pushy, others were just talking quietly to each other. Almost everyone seemed in panic.

When the Warehouse agents left the car, they were immediately surrounded by people asking questions. "You look important, are you from the government?" A person yelled.

"What is going on?!" asked another, loudly.

"Talk to us!" Several people demanded.

Between the voices, Myka heard a familiar voice quietly calling her.

"Agent Bering!"

The agent interrupted her attempt to make her way through the group of people. She froze in her motion, listening.

"Agent Bering!" Now, the voice was louder and nearer than before.

Quickly, Myka turned around. Between two strangers, she spotted the face of a little girl she knew. In her own time, that girl had grown a lot, and looked very different, but Myka still remembered this little version of her - fairly intelligent and observant. Adelaide came for visits every few months.

"Adelaide!" Myka walked towards her.

She resisted the urge to hug the girl and just shook her little hand instead.

"Agent Bering." Adelaide said in a matter-of-fact voice."I assumed you would come, now that there is something strange happening in Boone again."

"Again?" Myka asked surprisedly. Well, why was she surprised? She knew Adelaide had noticed a lot during that infamous day in Boone. The girl had told her herself. Later. After Helena had updated the girl on everything about the Warehouse. But now, the curly-haired woman could hear Pete inhaling the air loudly behind her. His partner smirked.

"Why are you at the police station?" Myka asked the girl, watching Adelaide's face change into a desperate one.

"We talked to the police because Helena is lost" The girl looked utterly worried.

"What do you mean by 'lost'?" Myka glanced through the citizens, meeting Nate's eyes - who stood in a small distance to Adelaide.

"She was at home this morning, so I don't think it's because of the missing day." The child mentioned. "But she went out of the house and then never came back. She didn't even wear her shoes" The girl's eyes widened while she spoke.

Myka looked at Pete and then at Claudia whose faces showed the same surprise Myka felt. This couldn't be happening. But there was only one conclusion and Myka didn't like having it: Helena was involved in this.

So the agent crouched in front of the girl, looking deeply into Adelaide's eyes.

"Okay," She carefully stated, "You need to tell me everything that has happened this morning and afterwards we will go to your house and look for clues to find her, okay?"

_________________________________________________

Helena woke up with her head aching brutally. The first thing she saw through her fog of dizziness were two beautiful green eyes with a slight tinge of grey. A familiar tinge of grey.

"Myka?" she asked with her voice trembling. Then the dizziness increased again causing the Victorian's eyes to shut themselves - even though she tried to fight it.

"No." A female voice replied monotonously.

Somebody pressed a hand to HG's neck, forcing her to move it back. Something touched her lips and then, a hot liquid streamed into her mouth. She couldn't help but swallow it, which caused her throat to start burning immediately. Again, she felt that strange feeling she had had back when she had used her time machine for the first time. Her head and her neck ached, then her chin fell again onto her chest. Her shoulders hurt as well.

She opened her eyes again; Her field of view was showing her own lap, she was sitting on a chair.

Carefully, Helena raised her head, realising that she was enchained with her hands on the back of the chair. Immediately, she started to work on her handcuffs to get her hands free.

"Myka?" She asked again. The Warehouse agent's name filled out her whole head since she had seen those familiar green eyes. Slowly, Helena's mind started working again. The Victorian realised it wouldn't make any sense to have Myka kidnapping her. She blinked a few times, watching the world around her changing from foggy to normal. Whatever the woman had given her to drink, it helped.

Her eyes focused a table with a few papers on it. There was also something else placed on it, but Helena couldn't see what it was.

The mysterious woman re-entered her field of vision, but not as close as last time. And yes - she was pointing a gun at the Victorian again. The young woman was still wearing her black wool hat, but a black curl had fallen out of it, currently dangling on the side of her face.

"What do you want from me?" Helena demanded to know, blinking again to manage the dizziness and this strange feeling she had. When she looked at the unknown object on the table, the feeling increased.

"Actually," The woman responded. "I need your help." She moved closer to Helena. "I know that you have already opened your handcuffs while we were talking."

Surprised, Helena dropped her handcuffs. They fell to the ground with a loud rattling noise.

"I'm still pointing a gun at you, Helena, but I really don't want to hurt you again." The woman with the wool hat sighed. "I really - really - need your help with something. I didn't want to get you here this way. You just - well - surprised me."

Helena stared at the strange woman. She had the feeling to know her but couldn't explain it. The Victorian didn't exactly remember the younger woman's face, it was just a surreal feeling. Immediately, the Victorian started analysing the room, to calculate her chance to overwhelm the other woman with Kempo. But then, she remembered her last attempt to do this and how this person had almost anticipated every move the Brit had made.

Helena sighed annoyedly. "What do you want me to do?"

The woman slowly lowered her gun, but she still looked at her sceptically.

"I'm alright." Helena assured her, nodding slowly. "I will not fight you again." Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she gave the other woman a careful look. "What did you say was your name?"

The younger woman's face softened a little. She seemed to ponder over HG's question for a while, then she replied: "I didn't say anything. But you can call me Paula."

Helena furrowed her eyebrows at the other woman's tone of voice. "That's not your name." She stated knowingly.

"Well, then I'm not the only one who does her job under a false identity." The woman responded with a slight grin on her face. "I also didn't say that this was my real name. I just offered you to call me this."

"Alright... _'Paula'_. How can I help you?" HG offered the woman an interested smile.

Paula stared a few more seconds at her, then she put away her gun. 

"Come over." She suggested, walking towards the table in the room.

The object on it was a golden wrist watch with a black dial. The black leather brace was worn out. It didn't really look special, but Helena could feel the nausea - she already had felt this morning - increasing again when she looked at it. Next to the watch, there were papers with handwritten notes. A lot of them. Before HG could even start reading them, Paula placed a hand on them, smiling at the other woman while shaking her head.

"This is not for your eyes." She stated quietly, putting a heap of papers away, just to present Helena another one. "But this paper is."

It was a big diagram with arrows, words and numbers. It looked very mathematical and complicated, but it was still easy for the inventor to find out what it was about:

"You are a time traveler" She eyed the other woman thoroughly.

Paula's face was still skeptical, but also surprised. Smiling carefully, she replied:

"Well, to be exact, you are the time traveler and this is why I'm asking for your help."

"Are you the reason for the missing day?" Helena quickly asked, staring at the time line right in front of her.

Paula raised a hand to her cheek, rubbing a finger slightly over the spot were Helena hat bruised her skin with the sunglasses. "Maybe. The watch needs energy to work and sometimes it takes time from other people. And I also realised that I brought somebody I didn't want to to another time."

Helena didn't understand everything that Paula was saying. She was clearly missing some information. "You travel through with the help of that watch?"

The writer asked interestedly.

Paula bit her bottom lip, raising her chin a little. Apparently, she was nervous. "The less information I give you, the less it will affect you." She stated strictly.

"But at least you have to brief me on your problem." Helena suggested. "Otherwise I won't be able to help you."

"There is something I want to change," The younger woman seemed to struggle for words, "but I can't find the exact smaller events I need to change so another, bigger one won't happen. It's just... this major event - which is linked to so many others. And... it didn't work. I tried again and again and it didn't work."

Helena stared anxiously at the other woman. She wasn't really able to make any sense out Paula's words, but there was this one thing she had understood immediately. _change_ Narrowing her eyes, she spoke utterly careful. "The ink in which our lives are inscribed is-"

"...indelible." Paule finished for her. "I know, Helena. But you are talking about the past. I am trying to change the future."

________________________________________

Myka could tell that Nate was nervous, judging from the way he placed the tea cups on the table. His hands were shaking, making the cups rattle.

The group of agents was sitting around the coffee table in his house, listening to Adelaide, who just updated them on the mistery of Helena's disappearance.

"...And then I heard the loud noise of the car driving away" The girl finished her speech.

_She didn't see much_ , Myka concluded. Between Helena going outside and the loud noise of a car driving away, there had been only a few minutes. But Adelaide assured them the car had something to do with the Victorian's disappearance. Claudia had connected Helena's cell phone to her computer. Now, Myka eyed her questioningly.

Claudia shook her head, shrugging. "Nothing." She huffed disappointedly. "She had a few appointments this afternoon, but nothing seems to be related to her disappearance."

Myka stood up. "I will go outside to check on the street. If Helena was kidnapped or something like that, then ... maybe ... I can find something that can tell us what exactly happened. Clues, tire marks, anything."

On the street, the first thing Myka noticed were indeed tire marks. Somebody had tried to drive away in a hurry - the gum of the tires was almost imprinted into the concrete. The Agent approached them slowly, noticing the flattened grass on the lawn next to the marks. Somebody had been walking on it, and now that Myka looked more thoroughly at it, she concluded that it looked like somebody had been fighting. Carefully, the curly-haired woman entered the lawn. Crouching down on it, she spotted something blinking in the glass. Immediately, Myka pulled out one of her gloves pick up a black shard. Her eyebrows furrowed as she surveyed the object more toroughly. 

Pete and Claudia joined her on the lawn.

"What do we have?" Pete asked interestedly, crouching next to her as well.

"These are black glass shards." Myka handed the one she had taken from the ground to Pete, who took it carefully between two fingers to avoid cutting them. Quickly, Myka picked up another one. "It looks like they belong to sunshades." She mumbled, more to herself than to him, while giving the object a careful look.

Carefully, Pete turned the glass in his hands.

"On this one there's a red stain." Myka mentioned. "Looks like blood. If you'd ask me, Helena has tried to fight her kidnapper."

"She tried to kenpo the frak out of him!" Claudia exclaimed, sounding a little bit excited.

"Yes, but it didn't work" Myka replied thoughtfully, spotting something in the grass right next to her.

"How do you know this?" The redhead furrowed her eyebrows, looking at Myka confusedly.

The older woman picked up a bundle of long, straight black hair, presenting it to Pete. Her partner cursed in reaction.

"It's actually just a feeling." Myka stated with her voice trembling. "But I assume that the person who kidnapped her was equally strong."

The curly-haired rose from the ground, looking around the street. The porches and lawns of the houses here were empty, there wasn't anyone looking at them. Myka started asking herself if somebody had seen the fight between Helena and her kidnapper. If people had started their morning like a normal working day before they had realised that something was off, then somebody must have been outside. For example to get the newspaper, or to get something out of the car? Or anything like that. People in suburbia were usually busy folks, weren't they. Myka was worried - a lot actually. She was afraid for... well her future wife. Even though she knew that _her_ Helena would be safe in the future (wouldn't she? Would this change something? Because in Myka's time line, she had never been in Boone for a second time - and there had also be no kidnapping...) Now, she actually started panicking about what could could possibly have happened to the younger version of her wife. And how this would affect her own future, if it did.

Myka's gaze wandered from one house to the next. She was looking for something without knowing what this could be. There had to be something, somebody must have witnessed-

The American froze.

"Oh my god - yes!" She exclaimed, before she immediately started walking over hurriedly to a house. At the last metres, she was almost jogging. 

"Myka?" Claudia asked suprisedly, following her with her gaze. "What are you-"

"Claudia, bring your laptop! There's a camera over this house's porch!" Myka yelled, looking over her shoulder.

"What? Oh, brilliant." The redhead squealed.

Claudia rushed to the house, taking position next to Myka who was standing in front of the porch. Pete joined them, too. "Will you be able to hack that thing?" He asked carefully. Quickly, the redhead gave the camera a careful look, before she pulled some wires out of her bag. "If you'd help me." She stated with a grin, reaching up to the roof of the porch. "Because the only thing that keeps me from hacking this camera is my own height!"

Myka scrunched her nose as she watched Pete walk over to Claudia. Without hesitation he placed his hands under her armpits, lifting her from the ground.

"Ouch! Seriously, ouch!" Claudia ranted angrily. "I was talking about leg-up or something. This hurts as hell! Next time want to do something like this to a woman, you should ask." Pete dropped her immediately, and now, the girl yelled even louder at him. "Leg-up!" She demanded, pulling up a foot. Her friend obeyed, avoiding the gaze of both women. Still yelling at Pete, Claudia reached for the camera, pulled off the cover to start working one some loose wires. Myka watched her with crossed arms. Claudia was doing her thing. Even in the future, Myka was sometimes struggling with Helena's tablet computer, so she didn't really get what her friend was doing exactly right now. 

A few minutes later, the tech nerd was sitting on the ground with the younger woman's laptop on her lap, clicking through some images.

"Okay, that camera isn't really filming, it just takes a picture every five seconds." Claudia huffed disappointedly. "But I can go back... to the point of time where HG has been- yupp. Here you can see HG lying on the lawn. There's _a woman_ grapping her. I think Helena is unconscious. Crap."

"A woman?" Myka asked.

"Yeah, black clothes, black wool cap. That typical kidnapper outfit." The redhead shrugged. "Fifty bucks that she also wore the shades, but HG managed to kick them off her face!" Claudia chuckled a little. "Okay, I'm going back, here they are fighting. I don't know what happened between the fight and Helena being unconscious. Maybe she just knocked her out?"

Myka looked over her shoulder. "There is a car in the background." She mentioned hastily.

"Yes!" Claudia said. "Maybe the woman's car? Let me just skip back, maybe I can see her driving away and with that the license plate... Okay, she threatens Helena with a gun - and she's wearing shades as I said." The girl nodded profusely. "There, she is getting out of the car... back and YES! I got it! It's a big bright SUV, maybe silver or grey... and the license number is..."

Myka noted the number on a paper she had with her in her pocket.

"Maybe they aren't that far away." Pete suggested. "I mean... could you possibly do your Claudia thing and look if somebody has seen a SUV with this license plate?"

"You mean," Claudia gave him a careful look, "I could use _some_ searching tool for SUVs that taps all the cameras in Boone and looks for the numbers on their license plates and works with a description of the car so that - _if_ that car has crossed any camera connected to the internet - I could see it on my computer?" She summarised naturally.

"Yes, the whole CSI thing" Pete shrugged, tilting his head a little.

"Actually, I programmed something like this a few weeks ago." The girl mentioned.

Myka eyed her suprisedly.

"For my science" Claudia added quickly.


	8. Chapter 8

2013

Myka almost jumped out of the still driving car, while Pete slowed it down in front of a smaller house. They had located the SUV in a quarter in the northern part of Boone. Pete parked the car and left it right behind Myka. With their guns pulled out, they walked over to check on the car.

Claudia waited until they were sure it was safe and no one was in sight, then she pulled out a smaller device to press a button on it. The car unlocked immediately. Pete opened its door to take a look inside.

"It's completely empty. And the cases are also empty" He said, fishing with his arms in the glovebox.

Myka turned around to look around the neighbourhood.

"They have to be in one of these houses." Her gaze wandered around. She turned around again, to the other side of the street.  
Suddenly, she felt that urge again. That urge that had made her touch the watch in the Warehouse.

When she touched it in 2023 she didn't even think about it. It was just a deep, almost animalistic urge inside her that made her do it. Here, she felt it again, but increasing - especially when she looked at one of the houses.

With her gun held straight up, she ran over to the house, quickly entering the porch.

"Myka!" Pete yelled far behind her.

Myka didn't think. She just slammed her shoulder forcefully against the front door. The lock broke with her second attempt, so the agent could open it quickly. She moved into the hall, pointing her gun into every corner of the room. She knew where she had to go - without being able to explain it. Taking big steps, she went up the stairs. After looking around quickly, she opened another door. Almost jumping in, she pointed her gun...

...at Helena, who sat on a chair, looking almost amusedly at her:

"She went this way." The writer stated calmly, pointing at an open door leading to the balcony.

Myka nodded, watching the Victorian for a brief moment. "Are you okay?"

Helena just bowed her head. Quickly, Myka moved over to the door to the balcony to open it. Outside, she looked down to the ground, finding narrow aisles inbetween houses and garages. In one of them, behind the house's backyard, she could see a blurry person - a shadow - turning around the corner. If Myka would be fast enough, she could... The agent heard Pete and Claudia already stomping up the stairs, Helena carefully cleared her throat behind her. But Myka's only thought was to follow that mysterious kidnapper down into the aisles.

So she lifted herself over the balcony's balustrade, dropping herself on the roof of the house next to the one in which she had found HG. This second house was almost high enough to reach the balcony.

Quickly, the curly-haired woman ran to the other side of the roof, hearing Pete's voice in a slight distance behind her.

"Myka! HG is _here!_ Where the hell are _you_ going?"

Myka knew without any doubt that it was more important to get the person who had kidnapped Helena. She couldn't actually explain why, but for some reason, she was sure about it. This woman was involved in the artifact case. There was this strange feeling inside Myka which told her that.

At the end of the roof she looked down again. In the aisle between this house and a garage, there stood a woman. But she was with her back to Myka so the agent couln't see her face. Currently, that stranger pulled something out of her pocket. Between that women and the house, there was a big trash container. Silently, Myka sat down on the edge of the roof and then dropped herself down on exactly that container. Then, she took a deep breath. She didn't think about that it might be too risky to do what she was about to do. Somehow, this urge she still felt numbed her senses and her ability to think properly. So she just jumped with her feet first right onto the woman's back.

Who fell over, shrieking and dropping whatever she had held in her hand. From the force of her motion, Myka fell on her back. She hadn't really overthought that jump, landing on her back was the outcome.

Her back complained loudly while she tried to get up on her feet again. Now, she could see the other woman crawl very quickly towards the object she had dropped, apparently to pick it up again. When Myka was on her knees, she yelled: "Freeze! Secret Service!" because she remembered now that she usually said something like this in these situations.

The woman rolled on her back, pointing a gun at her. Myka raised hers as well, but the woman was faster. Suddenly, it felt like time slowed down but Myka knew that it was just because of the adrenalin in her blood. She already had experienced time slowing down and this felt nothing like it. The agent was mesmerised.

Myka could actually see the other woman aiming, her eyes narrowing to slits. And then, Myka heard the bang. Her shoulder immediately started aching. She looked down at it, frowning in agony. Recognising her own blood, Myka felt her knees go weak. She couldn't keep herself from falling over. Hitting the ground, she looked at the other woman in surprise, noticing her green eyes. Myka had the feeling to know that woman. Just why did she have the feeling to know that woman?

Myka couldn't even explain why she just had acted so irrational. She didn't feel like herself at all.

She would never jump onto another woman's back and tell her to freeze afterwards.

Lying on the ground, the agent mesmerisedly watched the other woman standing up. Now, Myka could see the object in the stranger's hand more properly. It was a golden wrist watch. Myka stared at it in shock.

She felt that animalistic urge increase. For some reason, she wanted to touch the watch, to be with its owner. All of a sudden Myka got the feeling the watch made her act this irrationally. It had to be.

Behind her, Pete yelled Myka's name, but the agent couldn't stop staring at the watch. With nimble fingers, the stranger pulled out the crown of the watch and started twirling it between her thump and her index finger. Then she looked into Myka's eyes. Her facial expression was sad, Myka spotted a tear running down her cheek right over a fresh cut.

"Myka!" Pete yelled again behind Myka's back. The woman looked in his direction, again into Myka's eyes and then, she pressed her thumb on the crown of the watch.

Between two blinks by Myka, she was gone.

___________________________________________

2023

Sarah usually woke up very early, so Helena always tried to be in the kitchen before the girl could walk around the house all on her own.

When Helena prepared the coffee machine for Myka, her gaze fell on the note pad on the kitchens counter. Pondering over taking it or not, she decided to get some orange juice first. Sipping it slowly, the Victorian started reading what Myka had written. After the first lines, she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. But before the writer could think further about what she just had read, she already heard Sarah's feet stomping on the stairs.

So she dropped the note pad immediately to walk over to the stairs and pull her daughter tightly into her arms. Pressing kisses onto the girl's face repeatedly, Helena whispered: "Good morning, Sarah. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, momma." Sarah mumbled, sounding utterly drowsy. Helena could hear that the girl wasn't really awake, yet. The girl rubbed her eyes profusely.

"I prepared breakfast." Helena mentioned. "Pancakes for you today. Is that good?"

"Yes!" The girl's face immediately brightened.

"Then go eat." HG smiled and let go of her daughter. "I will go get mommy." Still having that slight smile on her face, the Victorian walked up the stairs.

She knocked on the bedroom's door to announce herself, walking in a few seconds later. Myka was already awake, Helena had heard that the American had taken a shower. The curly-haired woman was currently standing right in front of the big mirror on the bedroom's wall, a big towel wrapped around her upper body. She was leaning close to the mirror, apparently to look at something on her shoulder.

When Helena came in, Mykajumped, clutching the towel tighter to her body.

"Don't be afraid, darling" Helena smirked mischievously. "There is really nothing I haven't already seen. Considering that I am married to the woman who usually owns this body and that we actually consummate our marriage. A lot." She knew she probably shouldn't smile this smugly at Myka, but HG really couldn't help herself right now. 

Her wife blushed in reaction to Helena's, and the Victorian utterly enjoyed it. Causing Myka to blush was something she always had enjoyed, and in the last years, it hadn't happened that often anymore. But this was Myka from the past - and she blushed, looking down to the floor and clearing her throat.

"Good morning, by the way." Helena made no attempt to hide her smirk.

"Good morning, Helena." Myka replied, avoiding the older woman's gaze.

"Are you okay?" The writer now asked, concernendly - because, well, she had seen Myka's furrowed eyebrows while she had been looking in the mirror. "You looked quite worried while watching yourself in the mirror. Don't worry, I'm sure that baby bump suits you perfectly." Helena smirked again. And yes, Myka rubbed the back of her neck in reaction. But then, the American seemed to be finally able to collect herself.

"No," She replied, turning towards the mirror again (but Helena noticed that she indeed clutched her towel utterly tight right now.), "I was actually looking at the scar on my shoulder." Myka continued, brushing her fingertips carefully over the mentioned spot. "I don't have it back in my time, so I was asking myself how it has come to this."

"Scar?" Helena asked confusedly. She was aware of the fact that Myka had scars on her body - and actually a big big one on a certain spot. But it wasn't her shoulder.

"Yeah, it looks like I got shot. It's a round scar and..." Myka mumbled quietly.

Helena shook her head, scrunching her nose. "You just got shot once and that was not in the shoulder." What the deuce was Myka even talking about?

"Pardon?" The American asked carefully. "I got shot?"

Helena really didn't want to lead Myka's attention towards that topic. This was another part of the story and currently, that - well - _other_ scar was far more important. Because HG had no memory of it. "Just show me the scar." She mumbled thoughtfully while moving closer to Myka. Carefully, she took a look at the spot Myka was pointing at.

It was a completely healed, round scar on Myka's upper shoulder, close to her right arm. Helena carefully brushed her fingertips over it while surverying it more thoroughly. This kind of scar could only have been caused by... The Victorian shook her head, quickly surrounding her wife - or more the younger version of her, Helena reminded herself - with her hand still in contact with the other woman's skin. Her fingertips gently brushed over the younger woman's shoulder while she moved. Helena noticed Myka's sigh. Apparently, the younger woman was enjoying the Victorian's touch. Again, the writer didn't make attempt to hide her smirk. But now, she had to actually try to solve this puzzle. A mysterious scar on her wife's - her actual wife's - body. And it looked looked like...

"There is also a bigger scar on the back of your shoulder. For me, this looks like an exit wound fitting the entrance wound in front of it." Helena mentioned, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. This was definitely a shooting scar, but it made no sense at all.

"Pardon?" Myka turned around. Apparently, she tried to look properly at her back in the mirror, failing poorly. Quickly, Helena walked towards a dresser to pull a hand mirror out of one of its drawers. She positioned herself behind the American, holding up the mirror up so that the younger woman could see her own back. Touching the scar utterly careful with her index finger Helena whispered: "There."

Myka gave that scar a thorough look. "I've seen people getting shot like this." She slightly shook her head while speaking. Then she made a brief pause before she continued. "And they all had to go to hospital after that. I must have been in the hospital with a wound like this, right?" She looked up at the other woman, who only avoided her gaze and hoped Myka wouldn't notice. "I don't think this wound was life threatening, but..." Myka met Helena's eyes, whose eyebrows had furrowed in confusion. "You don't remember it?" Myka asked, apparently confused as well. She turned around to face the older woman properly.

"To be honest, I do remember that it hasn't been there two days ago." Helena mentioned, again making attempt to smirk. But then, she decided differently. This was a serious and utterly mysterious topic, so...

"Oh, please." Myka grunted before she started pacing around the room, still clutching her towel tightly to her chest. "You can't tell me it came to my- I mean... _your wife's_ shoulder over night" She stated, rubbing her neck excessively with her other hand. 

Now, Helena looked seriously at her. She pondered a bit over this. "Alright," She shrugged, "Let's think about this properly. And of course only hypothetically, because time travel is a complicated topic: You've come from the past to the future... and now, this future is changing a little bit. Evident in a scar appearing on your shoulder - out of nowhere. What does that mean?"

"I hope you are kidding." Myka firmly shook her head, still pacing through the room. "'The future is _changing'_... We already had that. Time travel doesn't change anything, remember? You weren't able to change anything when you used your time machine to rescue Christina. I mean it's good that you don't seem to be so hurt by that any longer but I doubt that you'd actually forget tha-"

The Victorian interrupted her immediately. "Back then." She stated strictly, waving her hand in dismissal. "I was trying to change the _past_. But it seems to me... like..." Now she started struggling for words, because after all those years, time travel was still a complicated topic.

"Like what?" Myka looked like she was feeling utterly uncomfortable.

"Like somebody is messing with time to change your _future_ " Helena breathed. She started to feel uncomfortable as well. This was getting more and more mysterious.

"Mommy!" Sarah suddenly yelled from downstairs.

Both women's gazes met in reaction to their daughter's call for Myka. The American swallowed.

"Yes, ...honey?" She yelled back. Helena shook her head with a slighty amused smirk.

"One of your buzz-thingies is buzzing!" The girl stated loudly, stomping through the house.

Helena smiled fondly at Myka. "She can't manage to say 'Farnsworth' properly."

The Victorian noticed that the younger woman actually chuckled in reaction to her words.

"Can you bring it to me, Sarah?" Helena joined their loud conversation.

"I'm already on my way." Sarah replied, apparently already halfway on the stairs.

A few seconds later, the girl entered the bedroom busily, handing the Farnsworth to HG. "Are you going on a mission today, momma?" She asked carefully, but sounding also a little bit annoyed. "I don't want to have uncle Pete as my babysitter, today. He just wants to play baseball with me and I really don't like hitting balls with a stick. Again. Also - I have to let him win all the time, otherwise he is always upset."

Helena took the still buzzing Farnsworth out of her daughter's hand. "We will see." She replied carefully. Then, she opened the cover of the communication device and pressed a button. Steve's face appeared immediately on the screen. Yes, this was definitely a call for Helena. 

"Guys," he said, "We've got a ping." Myka looked up from Sarah, who just turned around and scuffed out of the room.

"Alright." Helena replied, unsure if it was a good idea if she'd go on artifact hunt today. "Shall I get packed?"

"No, actually, that ping is here in Univille." Jinks shrugged.

"Pardon me?" Myka exclaimed, moving closer the Victorian so she could she Steve on the Farnsworth's screen, too.

"Guys," Steve seemed to struggle for words, "You won't believe this."

____________________________________

The girl who called herself Paula landed on her back on the hard floor of her own room, groaning in pain. She couldn't get used to this feeling. Opening her eyes, she looked at her bed, realising that it was still taken by the other woman who had visited her this morning. A woman that looked exactly like her, just more exhausted - and deadly injured.

Her future self weakly raised her own head, looking at Paula with tired eyes. "Did she help you?" She asked, her voice barely a whisper.

"She indeed wanted to help me, but we didn't have enough time" Paula replied, standing up from the ground. She placed her gun on the table, eyeing it disgustedly.

"What do you mean?" The other version of herself whispered confusedly.

"Myka interrupted us before Helena could figure out the exact point in time." Paula sat down on a chair, giving the person on the bed a careful look.

"Well, this only means", Her future self swallowed, "that you will have to go back."

"I can't go back _again_." Paula grunted indignantly. "I've already caused enough mess in that time."

"Caused what mess?" The girl on the bed propped herself up on her ellbows, shaking heavily.

"Well, I shot Myka in the shoulder." Paula admitted, lowering her gaze to the ground.

"You did _what_?" Her doppelgänger's eyes widened at the revelation. She fell back down to her pillow.

"I didn't kill her." The other woman strictly stated. "I aimed pretty well. I don't have to tell you that, have I? I only hit her in the shoulder." 

There was suddenly this silence between them, Paula couldn't bear it

"Oh god." She groaned with her eyes widened. "I shot her in the shoulder. That's really not good!" She stood up again, starting to pace around their room. Paula felt nervous, anxious, and exhausted. And so utterly, utterly tired.

"But why wpould you do that?" Paula's future self apparently tried to stay calm, but she wasn't very successful with it. But how calm could you be if you were slowly dying? And your attempt to undo that failed right in front of you?

"I panicked!" The other woman grunted. "I just panicked! She was suddenly there, trying to overwhelm me. She raised her bloody gun at me." The girl squeezed her eyes shut. "And I had this gun with me. I shouldn't have brought that gun anyway." Paula ranted. "God knows why I took it with me! I have your tesla. Why didn't I use your tesla instead?!"

Paula looked at the the other woman on the bed, feeling desperate. "Do you think that changes something?" She asked concernedly.

"If it would've changed something, would we still be here?" The other Paula breathed. "Would _I_ still be here? Or... you?" 

"No." Freezing on the spot, the time traveler shook her head in reaction. No, she wouldn't. Right?

"Then you have to go back and get _her_ to figure out what we want to know." Her future version stated emphatically. "Because you know what... what's at stake." Now, the woman on the bed started coughing. After brushing her hand over her lips, she looked at it. Blood. Paula pursed her lips, lowering her gaze to the ground.

"Boone, 2013." She whispered, earning a nod from her future self.

"To change something that happens in 25 years." The girl mumbled, meeting the other woman's eyes. "How can I get them to understand this? I think there will be chaos, now that I messed up with Myka." Nervously, she bit her lip.

Her future self smiled weakly, wiping away the blood that ran down her chin. "Try."

"I can't take away another day from the people in Boone." Paula pulled the watch out ot the pocket of her trousers, eyeing it anxiously.

"Then take the energy you'll need from me." Her older self whispered breathlessly. "I'm already out of time - you can see that." She turned her hand towards the younger woman, revealing the blood on it. "And I won't need another day. I can't help you any longer. You'll be on your own... But this is the last thing I can do for you."

Paula sat down on the edge of the bed, reaching for the other woman's hand. As her older self took her hand, she felt utterly sad. But then, swallowing, Paula loosened the watches crown and started twirling it between her index finger and her thumb.

The woman lying on the bed looked deeply into her eyes, causing the younger woman to close hers for a brief moment. She was sure she had seen tears in them. "Thank you." While her future version whispered those words, Paula looked at her again, chewing nervously on her lower lip.

Without another word, she pressed her thumb on the watches crown. While she felt the fuzzy feeling - that always came with the time travel - increase, she watched the tears on her future self's cheek stop falling. The blood on her shoulder and on her chin stopped running down as if time stopped for her. 'And then, the older Paula's face froze during the moment she died. Her time was up.

___________________________________________

2023

"I think I didn't really understand what you said." Myka was standing with Helena, Pete and Steve on the main street in Univille, looking utterly confused. And well, the others were as apparently as confused as her. Claudia Artie, and Abigail weren't with them. Both women kept an eye on Sarah, while Artie was at the Warehouse, doing research.

"It's Thursday" Steve shrugged, looking a little helplessly around the street.

"But it's Wednesday" Pete tilted his head in obvious confusion.

"No, it's actually Thursday." Steve responded carefully. "The whole city _thinks_ it's Wednesday, but it's Thursday"

"Where is it Thursday?" Pete asked now. It was obvious he couldn't follow the other man's words.

Jinksy rolled his eyes. " _Everywhere._ Because it's Thursday. In the whole world, it's _Thursday_ and it isn't Wednesday anywhere. But the people of Univille - including us - _think_ that it's Wednesday."

"I think that in Australia it's not Thursday yet." Pete grinned a little mischievously, causing Steve to roll his eyes.

"We are missing a day?" Helena joined their conversation. She had watched both men amusedly.

"We are missing a day. Apparently." Myka replied, unsure about the actual meaning of her words.

"I really want to know what happened on Wednesday." Pete ranted, shrugging.

"You and everyone else." Steve chuckled quielty. Then, he looked at a group of people in front of the only bar in Univille. That bar was actually the _only_ place where people went to form groups. Now, they all looked confused, talking to each other concernedly.

"Okay, this affects us all." Helena pursed her lips, turning towards Myka. "I'm rather concerned and I think that we have to set priorities, darling. The most important thing is to make sure that Sarah is safe. And Myka, I do believe that the missing time is connected to you and to the watch."

"Why do you believe that?" Myka couldn't follow her. But since HG had always been an expert on time travel, she didn't doubt her words.

"To be honest, I don't know, it's only a feeling." The writer shrugged, scrunching her nose. "And I think it would be quite a coincidence if all these events wouldn't have a connection. You've come from the past to our time and then - suddenly -somebody or something messes with your future ..,and now we are literally missing time."

"Somebody is messing with Myka's future?" Pete's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

"I shall give you the facts, Jinksy, but I think at first, I will bring Myka and Sarah to the safe place - and then we can investigate." Helena reached for Myka's upper arm to pull her in the direction of the B&B.

"No." Myka pulled away. "I get that it is important to bring Sarah to this... mysterious _'safe place'_ , but _I_ want to help. I really _need_ to help." She groaned annoyedly. "This is connected to _me_. You, Helena, can talk to the others and I will bring Sarah to that _safe place_. But then, I'll come back to help. I need to help."

"Myka, I-" Helena tried to say something, but Myka interrupted her immediately.

"No discussion, Helena. Just because I'm affected by the artifact doesn't mean I can't help." The younger woman's face was utterly serious.

Now the Victorian grabbed her by the arm again, pulling the American close to herself. She looked deeply into Myka's eyes, her face only a strict frown. Myka gasped when Helena's face came so close to hers that she could feel the older woman's breath on her lips. Myka could feel this light feeling in her stomach that caused a desire in her to kiss the other woman. But now, Helena's tension had a different reason - she seemed to be angry. 

"Myka," Helena whispered, looking utterly calm. But she had this tone of voice that betrayed her composure. "I _know_ that you're still able to help while being affected by an artifact, but trust me, I'm not talking about your time travel. You are carrying _my son_ under your heart and I will not allow you to put him in danger. Did you understand what I just said?"

The way Helena looked at the American frightened her. She swallowed, taking her eyes away from Helena's. Then, she pushed the writer's hand off, stepping back from her. She struggled hard to breathe calmly.

"Yes." Myka finally said, nodding weakly. "Go pick her up from the B&B - I will get the car from your house." Without another word, the younger woman turned around to walk away with her head held low.

Helena watched the younger woman's back for a brief moment, then she turned around to look at Pete and Steve.

They both surveyed the tips of their boots like they were the most interesting thing in the world.

"Please start with the interviews of citizens while I am gone." The Victorian suggested. "I shall be back in to help you when I brought Myka to your girlfriend, Pete." Helena bowed her head and then marched away as well.

"Wow, I just had war flashbacks to that year she tried to destroy the world with that trident thingy." Pete said, looking horrifiedly at Steve.

"I swear," Steve took a deep breath, "I will never take Sarah out for ice cream without asking ever again."


	9. Chapter 9

2023

Helena entered B&B's front yard, shooting a quick glimpse towards Claudia and Abigail. Who were standing on the lawn with another citizen who looked utterly nervous. They talked quietly to him, apparently trying to calm him down. Claudia noticed Helena, waving her hand at her. "Sarah is in the living room, HG. She is drawing."

Helena nodded before opening the door. When she turned into the kitchen to enter the living room, she froze. There were voices in the living room. More than one so it couldn't be only Sarah talking to herself while playing.

Abigail and Claudia were outside the house and no one else of the Warehouse family was even near the B&B. HG walked on, slowly and carefully moving one foot after another. While turning her head around, she grabbed the gun at her hip to pull it out. The Victorian cursed herself to not have taken the tesla today. She didn't even know that she could possibly need a weapon this morning and now she had to use the more dangerous one.

The voices in the living room were talking calmy with each other. One of them was definitely HG's daughter, but there was another, mature one, ...female. The woman was apparently telling Sarah something, but Helena couldn't understand her.

Slowly, the agent entered the living room. She tried to avoid making any noise while walking. At the table, there was Sarah sitting on a chair, bent over her painting. She was talking to a woman who sat in front of her with her back to Helena. 

The woman wore completely black clothes and a black wool cap.

Suddenly, Helena felt dizzy. Nausea hit her. She had experienced this feeling before in her life, back when she had used her time machine for the first time. The sudden feeling was strange and strong but Helena forced herself to concentrate. She had to.

Smoothly, the Brit moved over to the table to position herself right behind the strange woman. She pressed gun at the intruder's back, making sure that Sarah couldn't see the weapon.

"Sarah," Helena greeted her daughter carefully, making sure her tone of voice as an innocent one. "Did you show your drawings to your _friend?_ " The woman in front of her froze. Helena could sense how she built up tension. She knew that the stranger was aware of the gun on her back, but neither woman moved.

"Yes, Momma." Sarah looked up, apparently noticing Helena's worried facial expression. "She is okay." The girl just shrugged and then looked down to her painting again.

Helena swallowed in reaction, her gun still pressed to the other woman's back. Who had turned her head a little to look at the Brit from the corner of her eyes.

"Sarah, Momma and your _friend_ have to talk." The Victorian struggled hard to manage a friendly tone of voice. "Can you please go outside to Abigail and Claudia? Mommy will come to pick you up with the car." "Okay." Sarah dropped her pencil and left the room.

Helena didn't look after her. Instead, she just stared at the woman's head and listened for the front door to close. When she heard Sarah yell Claudia's name gleefully, the agent wrapped her arm around the strange woman's neck, to pull her up from her chair. The stranger didn't fight back, she easily followed the Victorian's attempt to pull her close.

"And now," Helena hissed into the other woman's ear, "You will tell me everything about you - and why you are in _our_ house... Or what you wanted from my daughter." 

"I am utterly sorry if I might have scared you." The woman replied, her voice still calm. "I didn't intend to do that. And I don't intend to harm your daughter as well. I just need your help."

"My _help?_ " Helena's voice was filled with sarcasm. "And this is why you broke into my home to talk to my daughter in secret? I feel threatened."

"First of all, this is maybe your home but definitely _not_ your house. Your house is a little walk down the street. Secondly, _I_ am the one with a gun pressed to her back. I wouldn't say you are the one who is threatened." Helena could hear the woman chuckle. She felt another wave of dizziness and swallowed several times to fight it.  
"Maybe I wasn't clear." She whispered afterwards. "I didn't intend to sound like I was joking." Then, she pulled the woman by her neck into the direction of the back yard's door. With her gun hand she quickly opened the door to start pushing the woman out of the house.

"Where are we going?" the woman asked with a faux-interest.

"I''ll just take you with me to the back yard so killing you won't make that much of a mess on Abigail's couch." Helena hissed angrily. She knew she wasn't telling the truth. She just wanted to bring this person as far away from her daughter as possible and then find out what she was up to. Currenlty, she wasn't really able to think logically. Only her overwhelming rage and fear allowed her to act.

HGwrapped her arm more tightly around the other woman's neck, pressing her forearm into her throat. In response, the woman gagged and coughed loudly. She seemed to struggle with her breath. Outside, on the porch, HG pressed the intruder against the table on the porch, and immediately started to frisk her for weapons.

"You won't find anything," the woman's voice was throaty, now. "I'm unarmed."

"So what did you want from my daughter?" Helena asked, not stopping to frisk her.

"Nothing, I just talked to her while waiting for you, Helena," The stranger assured her.

Helena pointed with her gun at her, while taking a step back. "Turn around." The Victorian hissed.

Slowly, the woman raised both her hands behind her head, apparently to show that her intentions were good. Then, she carefully turned around. Helena regarded her face thoroughly. It was familiar, but HG couldn't tell where she knew it from. The green of her eyes had this slight tinge of gr- Dizziness, again. Now more intense. Helena completely lost her ability to think properly. She gasped, squeezing her eyes shut and rubbing the spot between her eyebrows.

"I just need your help," The stranger repeated, sounding suddenly desperate. She coughed, reaching one hand up to rub her throat.

"Do I know you?" Helena asked, feeling utterly confused

"Yes. _No._ Well, no...Not yet." The woman sighed."It's complicated."

"Who are you?" Helena demanded to know. "Wait, 'not yet'?..." 

The Victorian's eyes widened, she suddenly understood. "You are the one messing with time! You brought Myka to our time! You are responsible for the missing day!"

"Bringing Myka to your time?" The other woman repeated, she narrowed her green eyes. "What do you mean by that?" She sighed annoyedly, closing her eyes briefly while pursing her her lips. "It would help a lot if you wouldn't point a weapon at my head. I really don't like guns pointed at me." Her eyes were a silent ask, but Helena didn't react. She only cared about protecting her family. And apparently, this woman knew how to bring _her_ Myka back.

Quickly, she inched closer, bringing the gun closer to the intruders's face. "What did you do?" She hissed again.

"I'm just trying to change something, to set something right." The woman replied with her voice trembling. "And I'll need your help for that."

"Oh, no." Helena's face showed an irate grin. "You will not change my family's future. I have already seen what you did to Myka's shoulder!"

"Myka's shoulder? I don't understand... What are you even talking about?" The woman squeezed her eyes shut again. "Please, the gun. I really don't like guns Especially not if pointed at my face."

"You will bring her back." Helenainched closer again, pressing the gun's muzzle forcefully against the woman's forehead.

"Trust me, I'd prefer to not have to hurt you." The woman mumbled. "I feel really threatened by your behaviour with that gun."

"You will-" Helena rose her voice again, but before she could finish it, the intruder quickly attacked her. Everything went so fast that Helena really wasn't able to react properly. Moving faster than any person Helena had ever met, the intruder grabbed for Helena's gun arm with both hands, ramming it on the table. The other woman's strength and her own dizziness overwhelmed Helena, the sudden pain forced her to drop the gun. It fell to the ground, rattling loudly. With an utterly fast motion, the woman ripped at the Victorian's arm, spinning her around to twist up her gun arm painfully. Helena snarled in anger, mesmerised by the sudden loss of air - and by the other woman's swiftness.

Now in control over HG, the intruder lectured her. "You really should consider stopping to point guns at other people's heads. I highly doubt you and Myka could have liked that - And I really don't like it at all." With her foot she kicked at Helena's left calf, causing the writer to groan in pain while she fell down to her knees. The stranger followed her down, still holding Helena's arm twisted up to her back. She pressed a knee onto Helena's other arm. Helena hadn't even thought about that arm, she was just overwhelmed, mesmerised. The dizziness had frozen her. Now she started to struggle, to fight the woman's weight on her back, but in reaction, the woman just twisted her arm tighter up her back. From the corner of her eyes, Helena watched the woman reach for her gun. The Victorian started yelling. "I will not help you! No matter what you do. You can shoot me right now."

The woman inched her face closer to Helena's ear, "I have already done what I needed to do in your time, Helena. I just wanted to ask you for your help with another problem I have. But now that you are completely out of your mind, I decided to find another person who can help me. I have _options._ "

Helena could feel the other woman shift on her back. She heard a very quiet twirling sound, turning her head to see more properly what the intruder was doing. The stranger was busy with the wrist watch on her arm.

The weight on the writer's back changed while the woman slowly moved. Helena tensed up, ready to move the second that intruder would rise from her. Even though she was currently helpless, she was making plans: Lift herself up, then turn around to grab the woman's neck. She couldn't rip out her throat, because she needed her to bring Myka back, but she could torture her - make her feel pain. This person had threatened HG Wells' family so she deserved to feel pain for this.

With a quick move, the woman jumped up. This action pressed Helena against the ground for a second, but she hastily moved her arms to lift herself up. When she was up to her feet, she turned around, reaching forward to grab...

...into empty space.

Helena blinked in confusion. The woman was gone. Completely gone. Vanished. The Victorian turned around, her gaze wandering through the whole yard.But she couldn't find the other woman. Then, the writer looked for her gun, but the woman had taken it with her. Wherever she had gone...

Immediately, Helena felt panic rise. She opened the backyard door to sprint through the house. "Sarah!" She yelled desperately. Reaching the front yard, she froze, her gaze meeting her daughter who was just about to climb into Myka's car. Apparently, the curly-haired woman had heard Helena's scream, but now, she looked at her in surprise.

Helena crossed the lawn, to pull Sarah into a tight hug. Tears were running down the writer's cheeks. She pressed Sarah so tightly to her chest that the little girl protested loudly. Myka crouched next to them, looking into the older woman's eyes. Apparently, she was concerned. Helena place a hand on Myka's neck, pulling her close and pressing their foreheads together. She didn't care about that this currently wasn't her wife from her time. It really didn't matter. Helena just loved her.

______________________________________

2013

Myka was lying on a hospital bed, staring at the ceiling. Her upper body was naked, a big blue paper sheet covered only half of it. And currently, Myka didn't know if she should feel embarrassed or not. There were blood stains all over her chest, so it really was necessary to be naked. Because currently, a physician was poking in her right shoulder, using tweezers and a needle, apparently trying to figure out how to close her shooting wound properly. But for Myka, it felt more like poking. Pete sat at the foot of her bed with his back to Myka, watching the wall in front of him thoroughly. He had wanted to stay with her but not look at her being naked.

Helena was standing on Myka's left side, watching the doctor doing his work - and when Myka groaned in pain during the procedure, HG gently took the other woman's hand. Helena had been utterly pale and quiet for the whole surgery.

"She has local anaesthesia, right?" Pete asked from his spot on the bed, still staring at the wall. It wasn't the first time for him to ask this question.

"She does." The doctor replied naturally, "But there is still some pain left, okay? Without the numbing agent, she would scream, not groan."  
Helena's sceptical look confused the doctor a little so he started talking to Myka while sewing.

"You can call yourself lucky that the bullet just hit the muscle a little bit and came out so easily. Entrance and exit wounds are clean and the bullet didn't hit any bigger vessels or nerves." He nervously eyed Pete when Myka groaned again. "What I want to say is taht you're either very lucky or you were attacked by a very bad shooter - or by a very good shooter."

Myka's and Helena's eyes met for a brief moment. "A very good one. " Myka stated carefully. "She aimed very well. I could actually _see_ her aiming."

"So she did just wanted you to be passed out without putting you in danger?" Helena shrugged. Myka nodded her head yes.

"I don't understand why you sent the police away."The physician mentioned. "It's their job to help in such situations."

Helena and Myka exchanged another look. "We're from the secret service. We have our own way to work on such cases," Pete told the wall right in front of him.

The doctor nodded, suggesting he was finished sewing. "You can sit up, now. The exit wound is closed, too, and now, I need to bandage you. You'll have to wear a sling for a couple of days - and surely, you'll take the painkillers I'll give you."

"Thank you." Myka let go of Helena's hand while sitting up. The doctor carefully started to cover Myka's should in a bandage.

"I don't even understand why you went after her all alone, Mykes. I could have covered you properly and you wouldn't need _any_ painkillers, now." Pete sighed deeply, still staring at the wall.

Myka carefully eyed the doctor and then at the back of Pete's head. "I don't know..." She wanted to shrug but thought better of it. "It was a mistake. It did just feel like I had to follow her. She has something to do with the wrist wa- with our case, Pete. And I followed her because I couldn't resist..." She carefully looked at the doctor again. "This urge."

"Do you mean it had something to do with the arti-" Pete paused, eyeing the doctor as well.

"I'll be gone in a few seconds when her arm is in the sling. Then you can finally talk about whatever you have to talk about." The doctor smirked, then he looked at Helena. "Her arm is bandaged, can you help her into her shirt? I will get the sling."

Pete had brought one of his baggy shirts from the car while they were waiting for the x-ray. When they had made it into the hospital, the doctors had destroyed Myka's shirt for better access.

Avoiding Myka's gaze, Helena took the shirt to carefully pull the sleeve over the youner woman's bandaged arm. Then, she moved to her other arm and head. The other woman easily reached her limbs up for her so HG could pull the shirt over it. When the Victorian pulled the t-shirt down her back and her stomach, Myka groaned again. The groan came from the pain, but she knew that Helena could feel her breath on her neck while she helped her with her shirt. And she knew what this might cause in Helena. For a brief moment, the writer stilled her hands, apparently adjusting herself to the feeling to have Myka this close.

Myka grinned mischievously. When they'd become a couple in the future Helena would confess she had been attracted to the younger woman from the beginning. The current Helena wasn't aware of Myka's time travel yet, so well,... the curly-haired woman enjoyed teasing her future wife a little. She knew she shouldn't. She really knew, but she had always enjoyed the effect she had on the other woman. 

Now, her physician came back to help Myka into the sling. Helena took a few steps back, looking awkwardly to the ground. "You'll have to rest for the next few days." The doctor stated seriously "Complete bed rest. In two days you may begin using your arm slowly. But be careful."

Then, he handed Myka the discharge papers, wishing her a quick goodbye.

When, he left, Claudia entered the room, holding coffee mugs in a holder. "Are you done with the sewing?" She asked, her eyes squeezed shut.

Myka chuckled slighty. "Yeah, we are, Claud. You can open your eyes."

"Oh, good!" The redhead blinked a few times and then looked at Pete and Myka. "I brought coffee. And I updated everyone at the Warehouse on the fact you are alright, Myka, and that the shooting wasn't that bad. I might have freaked out a little and told them you were about to die and... well, they know better, now. But they're still worried and wish to know every step we're about to do."

While talking, the girl walked over to Pete to hand him a coffee.

When he took a big gulp, Helena sighed deeply. "All right." She glared at Myka indignantly. "Will you now tell me what this whole incident was about? I was - well - kidnapped by a woman and for some reason, _you_ seemed to know where she took me. Is this an artifact case? Why am I even asking? Of course it is." The Victorian rubbed the space between her eyebrows. "May I _offer_ my help?" She asked carefully, the sarcasm in her voice sharp as a blade.

"No." Pete replied quickly. "I mean, uh.... yes, it's a case." He nodded at Helena. "But now, we need to bring Myka to our hotel to make her rest. She's injured. She got _shot_ Have you looked at the time recently? It's almost midnight. Bed time for all the injured Mykas."

Myka protested immediately, jumping from the examination bed. "Pete, this is far more important." She huffed, while making attempt to cross her arms in front of her chest. She regretted that decision in the moment she tried. "The kidnapper wanted something from _Helena._ And I want want her to tell me everything... everything that happened during the kidnapping. That woman might come back. We can't leave Helena alone."

Now, Myka turned towards the Victorian. " By the way," she gave HG a worried look, "now that we're talking about the time, have you called Nate, yet? He must be completely freaking out and worried about you."

"Oh no!" Helena brought her palm to her forehead. " I completely forgot about that." She didn't see Myka's slight smirk. "I _have to_ call him. Can I maybe use your phone, Myka?"


	10. Chapter 10

2023

Myka and Helena were on their way back home from Pete's girlfriend's house. Myka had been very interested to meet her. The woman lived in a smaller city near Univille which was the infamous _safe place_ where they send Sarah if something in Univille was happening - and appeared to be dangerous. Pete spent a great deal of time with this new woman in his life, but he hadn't yet told her anything about the Warehouse or anything else. They weren't together that long, now. And Pete still had this problem that he had called Kelly about the Warehouse a few years ago. According to Helena, the agent had had some discussions with the Regents, but there hadn't been a decision about that, yet. Now, Pete appreciated that his girlfriend never asked deeper questions about his job. Nor did she ask any questions when there was a reason to bring Sarah somewhere safe.

Myka and HG sat in silence for a while, but then, Myka sighed deeply, dragging her attention away from the steering wheel towards the women in the passenger's seat. "Do you want to tell me what happened in the B&B?" She asked carefully. "I'm confused and now, I can almost hear that you're pondering over something. It's a wonder that I wouldn't hear any computer noises if I'd lean closer to your head." _And let's not talk about that hug and that little family moment we had,_ Myka thought, _because that was the most confusing part for me._

"I think I found the person who is responsible for the missing day,"Helena replied straight-forward."I have to tell the others about it."

Myka's eyes widened in surprise. "You have?" She asked, tilting her head. "In the B&B? Pardon?... I think I don't understand." Myka really couldn't follow the older woman's thoughts. "Could you please uhm... maybe start from the beginning and tell me everything? I don't care about what happens to the future if you'd tell me. I think it's more important that we solve this puzzle. This affects me _and_ you and our- ... _your_ daughter, it seems, so please, just tell me. Maybe I can help."

"I don't know that much more than you." Helena huffed, sounding annoyed. "I entered the B&B to pick up Sarah and well, ... there was another woman with her. She was talking to our- ... _my_ daughter. I felt dizzy like back when I used my time travel machine for the first time."

Myka looked at her in surprise. "I didn't feel dizzy when I used your machine."

"No. I think I'm the only one to feel that." The Victorian shrugged while staring outside the front window. "Maybe I can feel such things because I used to manipulate time? Who knows? Well, I think that woman has an _artifact_ that manipulates time and this affects the whole city - so we miss a day - and for some reason, it affects you as well - so you've been dragged from the past to our time." Helena interrupted her speech for a second, apparently to ponder a bit over her words. "I don't know what she wants or what she is dealing with. But she told me she needs my help and she mentioned she is trying to change something. I was so enraged when I saw her with my daughter." Helena looked at Myka from the side. "I thought she'd harm her, and my wife, well... you. I just wanted to keep you both safe. And my only other thought was to force this stranger to bring _my_ Myka back." She smiled shyly at the American. "No offense."

"That's okay." Myka replied with a slight grin. "I really would like to go back to my time, too... No offense." 

Helena just smirked in reaction, then she took a deep breath.

"So what do we have?" She mumbled, apparently thinking loudly. "We have you - from the past, now brought to the future. We have a time travelling artifact that doesn't really work. We have a mysterious woman who talks about changing something in time. We have a missing day in Univille. We have a sudden scar from a shooting that appeared out of nowhere on your shoulder. And we have your dream about the artifact, another version of yourself, and a third person." The Victorian sighed deeply. "What did this person look like, by the way?"

"I don't know. I couldn't see her. Everything was dark." The younger woman shrugged.

"Can I speak hypothetically?" Helena asked this question utterly careful, confusing Myka.

"Of course." The American responded, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Well, let's assume that the woman I met wants to change something in time - we don't know what it is, yet - that has to do with you." HG paused for a moment, then she nodded. "We can assume this because you are now here and you suddenly got that scar. And the person in your dream said she didn't want to bring you here. Let's just assume this because it's only spoken hypothetically."

"Let's assume." Myka grinned, looking at the other woman for a brief moment and then back at the high way.

"Now that I'm speaking hypothetically, I would also assume that the woman in your dream and the woman I just met are the same person." Helena described her tjoughts further.

"Hypothetically." Myka nodded. "Hypothetically, this would make sense."

"And in your dream, she mentioned that she didn't intend to bring you here." Helena summarised. "That could mean - hypothetically - that your appearance in our time was a downside of the artifact."

"But we have the artifact."Myka mumbled, confused. "It's in a neutralisation bag on the table in the B&B."

"Hm." It seemed Helena had gone into her thinking mode again. There was a long pause in which Myka concentrated on the street and neither of them spoke a word.

"But," HG interrupted the silence they shared, "that woman literally disappeared into nothing. She completely vanished. And I heard a twirling sound when she did. If you ask me, I'd say she used an artifact to disappear."

"You mean, she disappeared out of your time?" Myka asked, confusion evident in her voice.

"Hypothetically." Helena responded quickly with a smirk.

"So what does that mean?" Myka couldn't really follow her thoughts. "Another artifact? Two artifacts?"

Helena shook her head. "No, I have a different idea. Snd this is the most hypothetical part about my hypothesis."

"Okay, let me hear it." The American sighed deeply.

"Let's assume this woman has a time travel artifact." Helena began, apparently preparing herself for a longer speech. "And we assume that she is from the future - because she is aware of an incident that happens in the future and she tries to change it, like she said it when I met her - that would lead me to the conclusion she has the original artifact." The Victorian seemed to be so proud with her revelation that she didn't get that Myka had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

"The original artifact?" The younger woman blinked confusedly. "Are you saying our aritfact is not the original? Helena, I travelled through time with the artifact. It does work like a real artifact, it just stopped working."

"I don't think that I agree on that, Myka." HG gave her a careful look. "I pondered a while over this today, when we brought Sarah to the safe place. According to my hypothesis, the artifact doesn't even exist in time like we do."

"Pardon?" Myka shot her an utterly astonished glance.

"Please pay attention to the street, darling," Helena said calmly, ignoring the other woman's confusion.

Myka only rolled her eyes.

"I would say that the woman I have met has the original artifact and uses it to travel through time. But the artifact you have is something like a shadow of the original artifact in another time." Helena continued.

The other woman only gaped at her. When Helena didn't react, Myka decided to drag the other woman's attention towards her own confusion. 

"That is a little too much for me... right now." She mentioned. "Could you maybe simplify that?" 

"Well," Helena smiled at her. "You and I - and everyone - we are all bound to time. When time passes, we get older. What if this artifact exists without time? Time itself has no affect on this artifact."

"That would mean the artifact would always stay the same, no matter how much time passes?" Myka had the feeling to actually understand what HG was trying to say.

"Yes," The Victorian bowed her head. "In my hypothesis, the artifact could be made in the future, but that would mean it appears in the past. And that would mean, if someone uses it in one time, it is also in usage in another time.

"Do you mean that if the woman uses the artifact in her time, the artifact in my time will also do its work?" Myka tried to follow the older woman's thoughts.

"Yes, but just as some kind of shadow which doesn't work the exact way as the original. This is why the owner could take her body with her - while you just appeared in _my_ Myka's body." The Victorian stated. It seemed she was really getting excited about the current topic of time travel.

"I think that makes at least a little sense." The curly-haired woman scrunched her nose.

Helena stopped talking, apparently to start thinking again. After a few minutes, in which both women were quiet - Myka paying attention to the street - HG looked at her again. "I would like to make another assumption based on my hypothesis."

Myka sighed deeply. "Okay. It's not like my brain doesn't already feel like a big mess."

"In your dream, you met another version of yourself. Maybe it's _my_ Myka?" Helena assumed.

"I don't know. I didn't ask her." The younger woman shrugged.

"Well, judging from what I got from your notes, she mentioned that she also had the artifact, just like you. This information allows me answer a question I always had about your appearance in our time," Helena gave the other woman a careful look.

"Start answering that question immediately." Myka demanded. "I have so many questions about appearing here. It would be great if you could answer at least one of them."

"Why did _you_ in particular appeare in _our_ particular time? Are you bound to anything that happened here? Are you here for a reason?" Helena asked with her eyebrows furrowed.

Myka pursed her lips at the older woman's question. "To be honest, before I touched the watch I asked myself a few desperate questions about the utterly complicated nature of our relationship in _my_ time and I thought the watch wanted to calm me down or something by showing me what my future looks like. Until your younger version would be ready for... yeah.... me?"

"That sounds indeed utterly romantic." Helena smirked. "A time travel artifact brings you to your possible future only to show you how it could be with the woman you love."

" _Possible_ future?" Myka asked, surprised.

"Well, _your_ future hasn't happened yet, has it? So I wouldn't say it's that fixed. There could still be a different time line for you." Here, the Brit shrugged.

"Now you're confusing me again. Could you plase just answer the questions you have just asked." Myka demanded while turning the car into antoher street.

"Future may be changeable as we just have learned. Past isn't as I have learned." Helena pursed her lips. "The ink in which our lives are inscribed is indelible... But, well, you haven't written your future, yet. You can change what you are writing."

"That sounds poetic. But I think I just understood. But can you just please _answer_ the questions? Why the hell am I here?" Myka rolled her eyes again.

"Well, why is 2013 Myka in 2023? Why isn't maybe 2009 Myka in 2034 or some other time?" Helena nodded thoughtfully.

"I understood the questions when you asked them the first time." Myka groaned annoyedly.

"Alright, I shall answer the question. Following my thoughts on your dream and the other given hypothetical ideas, I would say: That woman tries to change something about your life. She travels through time, appearing in 2023. The time travel artifact she uses maybe needs energy. Temporal energy or anything comparable. This is the reason why Univille is missing a day - hypothetically. The day is needed to make the artifact work." Again, the Victorian nodded thoughtfully. "So, she meets me, asking for my help about the change she is planning to do, because I'm your life partner who happens to have experience with time travel."

"Okay." Myka bowed her head.

"But I'm not cooperative because of my daughter and my wife." Helena shrugged. "So _maybe_ , she travels through time again."  


"And why would she do this?" The American looked at her in surprise.

"Because maybe she thinks I'm more cooperative at a different point time?" Helena assumed. "I'm still not sure about her motives. I'm just trying to explain what exactly seems to happen."

"Okay, makes sense."

"So," Helena continued. "She travels to 2013 - because in this time I'm not with you and I don't have a daughter there."

"Well, Adelaide, in a way," Myka bit her lower lip, struggling with her ability to breathe properly.

"Yes, Adelaide." Helena agreed. "But Adelaide is a different topic. And perhaps Adelaide isn't affected by the time travel like you are, now. So this...time traveler travels back to 2013 to get help from me in this time."

"I still don't know what this has to do with my appearance in this time," Myka mentioned, slowly becoming annoyed.

"Well, again hypothetically." HG shot her a careful glance. "If we start to assume that the person brought you here by mistake - like she mentioned it in your dream - and then look at the other important part of your dream: the presence of _another_ Myka, as well as the sudden appearance of your scar, this all leads me to express a big and utterly bold hypothesis."

"Helena, I know that you like to hear yourself talk. Could you please just say it? In a very very easy way?" Myka pleaded.

"You haven't just been sent here from 2013!" Helena proclaimed. "You swapped places. My Myka is in 2013 and you are here, and this wasn't anything our suspect intended. It is a side effect of her time travel artifact. I would say the person desires to change something connected to you and with this desire, she also dragged you with her while she travelled through time. From 2013 to 2023 and the other way round." Helena finished in an utterly proud tone of voice, waving her hand with every word.

Myka was silent for a while to ponder over this revelation. It wasonly a hypothesis by Helena based on another hypothesis by her. But all in all, it made sense. Myka couldn't explain why, but she had the feeling that HG (expert on time travel) was right. It hadn't been a coincidence that Myka had touched the artifact. She had touched it for a reason. And the scar on her shoulder had just appeared out of nowhere. That could only mean something was happening in the past that wouldn't have happened if she had stayed there. The past was running on without her, but her body seemed to be still involved in it.

"You are too smart for this world," Myka whispered after a while. Helena smirked. "Darling, you have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that."

_____________________________________

"Hypothetically?"Artie asked surprisedly, leaning forwards in his chair. He regared the two women on the B&B's couch thoroughly.

"Hypothetically,"Myka replied with a profuse nod."This is what we think makes the most sense."

"So, let me get this straight." Pete mumbled with his mouth full of sandwich. "The missing day, Myka's appearance, the not-working artifact... you think that is all related to one person? And you think Myka swapped places with her younger self?"He went on chewing. Steve watched him with a slightly disgusted face.  


Helena bowed her head. "Exactly."

"But who is this person?" Abigail asked, raising her hands towards the ceiling. "I mean, if we follow that hypothesis, she must have some connection to the Warehouse. Or Myka. Right?"

Myka sighed deeply. "That's the problem, we have no idea."

Helena rose from the couch to start pacing through the living room, "I had the feeling to know her. And I an't explain why.

Steve scratched his neck thoughtfully. "So, she is from the future, right? Because she wants to change something and we don't know what it is but she is completely aware of it and it's something about Myka? Maybe a big thing happening to her?"

"This is what I asked myself, too." Claudia appeared out of nowhere, causing them to shriek

"Claudia! Stop Mrs. Frederic-ing us!" Pete yelled annoyedly.

"So what did the Regents say?" Abigail asked, ignoring their banter.

"They don't know any more than we do." The caretaker shrugged. "They are all concerned. And they told me to bring Myka to them and make her answer their questions."

"Of course they did." HG sighed loudly.

"Oh." Myka furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "But I don't know much more than you. Actually, I don't know anything."

"That's what I told them, Mykes." Claudia assured her. "So they gave us a little time to discuss what we are dealing with. You have to understand them. If the timelines are messed up it could affect the Warehouse and this is what they are actually worried about." Claudia took seat next to Pete and immediately a bite from his sandwich.

"Hey!" The man huffed, shielding his plate with his arms.

"Let me be. Claudia-ing people makes me hungry." Claudia waved his sandwich at him.

"So, what could this _thing_ be that happens to Myka that this woman tries to change?" Abigail rubbed the bridge of her nose in thought.

Helena who was still pacing through the room started mumbling to herself: "Why do I know her?"

Myka lowered her gaze towards the floor, sighing. This was about her. Something was happening in the future to her and someone wanted to change it. Maybe this person had bad intentions. Maybe Myka would do something in the future that would cross the woman's plans. But this person actually told Helena that she didn't want to harm her family. This could mean something else... that the woman actually had good intentions. Maybe she wanted to save Helena and her family. Maybe she wanted to rescue Myka.

Carefully, Myka cleared her throat before she spoke, her voice trembling a bit."My death?"

Helenafroze on the spot. "Pardon?"

Myka looked at her with her lips pursed. "She seems to have good intentions. She didn't want to harm your daughter, she didn't hurt you... she didn't _really_ hurt you while fighting you. Maybe she wants to save me from an accident or something else cruel happening to me. In the future."

Helena stared at her flabbergastedly, then she briefly squeezed her eyes shut, turning around to continue her thoughtful pace through the living room.

"How old was she?" Claudia whispered thoughtfully. "Did she look like a Warehouse agent? Maybe we have new agents in the future. It can't always just be the little family."

"No, she was too young to be a proper agent. No offense, Claudia." Helena shrugged. "Maybe 20...wait - _family_..."

The Victorian stopped in front of a dresser with some pictures of them: Artie and Claudia, Pete and Myka with Helena and ice cream cones in their hands, Jinksy and HG in front of the Warehouse, Myka and Helena and Sarah.

"Oh my god!" Helena gasped surprisedly.

"What is going on?" Abigail asked, turning towards her.

"Myka!" Helena whispered breathlessly. "It _is_ the family. I didn't see it, because I was so enraged and afraid, but now that I can think clearly, I know. It's her!" She gasped again.

"HG, again, we can't follow your thoughts," Steve stated with a slight but confused smile on his face.

Helena took the photo of her wife and daughter. It was a close-up to their faces. Myka's and Sarah's green eyes looked directly into the camera, their faces pressed together so their curls mixed.

Slowly, HG turned around and put the photo on the dining table where everybody would see it.

"It's Sarah, Myka. That woman who tries to change your future is Sarah." She stated calmly but with a frightened expression on her face.

Claudia choked on Pete's sandwich. "What?!" She asked, looking utterly astonished while coughing.

Steve looked at Helena in surprise. "Are you sure about this?" He asked carefully.

"I recognize my daughter when I see her, no matter how old she is." Helena mumbled, sounding desperate. "Why didn't I see this?"

You are the only one who has really seen her," Artie mentioned, shrugging.

"You have to believe me. I am utterly sure about this." The Victorian's gaze met Myka's.

"Yes." Myka breathed, pondering over this. "Yes, that would make sense."

Her future daughter was trying to rescue her. Myka couldn't quite believe it, but she believed Helena. Helena was so bound to her daughter, she knew her best and she she seemed to be so sure about this.

"This would explain the side effect of the artifact as you mentioned it, HG." Steve bowed his head. "She travels several times through time and takes the person with her who she desires most to be with."

"Well, we have to tell her that the time travelling has to stop immediately." Artie's voice was strict.

Helena turned around, snapping her fingers. "The artifact!" Helena exclaimed.

"What about the artifact?" Abigail asked, eyeing the purple bag on the table warily.

"We could use it to prove our hypothesis," Helena inched closer to her. "It exists out of time."

"I don't understand." The former therapist shrugged in reaction to her words.

"With the artifact we have an opportunity to communicate with 2013. Remember your dreams, Myka!" Helena explained, looking around to find the afore mentioned object.

"It is here," Myka held up the bag she had picked up from the table.

"Well, please give it to me." The Victorian inched closer to her. "And I will need a hard and pointy object." _______________________________________________ 

2013

They had brought Myka to her hotel room and made her lay down on her bed. The painkillers kicked in, so she wasn't that responsive anymore. She had closed her eyes, being already half asleep. Helena and Pete had taken seat at the foot of her bed, watching over her. Claudia fell asleep curled up on the couch.

"I shall stay here for the night, Peter." Helena whispered. "Myka told me it's important to have me here so if the kidnapper comes again, I would be safe."

"Yes."Pete replied, rolling his eyes. "It is about _you_ being safe." 

"Pardon?" Myka whispered, opening her eyes to shoot them an indignant look.

"Nothing." Her partner shook his head, avoiding her eyes.

"So could you explain now what this case is about?" Helena demanded, sounding slightly disgruntled. "I think I need to know. This seems to be about me and also about my family."

Myka sighed quietly from the other side of the bed. It seemed she was falling asleep again.

"Time travel." Pete whispered, eyeing his partner on the bed.

"I understood that on my own." HG snorted. "I saw most of my kidnapper's notes. She is trying to change something in the future and wanted me to figure out how the events are connected to each other. Sadly, I didn't understand that much, but it seems that it was something in the future and it was connected to the Warehouse."

"Okay." With his eyebrows raised, Pete looked directly at the Victorian. "So what do you want me to tell you, if you already know everything?"

Helena sighed deeply. "Oh Pete, I have a lot of questions. I want to know why she chose me. Does she know I was a Warehouse agent? She said she knows I'm a time traveler. Who is this woman?"

"Yeah, we don't know." Pete responded, looking at Myka again.

"She has an artifact." Helena mentioned, louder now. "I saw it. It was a wrist watch."

"A wrist watch? Are you sure?" Pete asked surprisedly, trying to stay quiet. Myka was snorring again and he didn't want to wake her up for another time. 

"I am indeed sure, Pete." Helena rolled her eyes. "I may be not working for you anymore, but I didn't lose my ability to recognise inanimate objects. It was on the same table we were sitting at while going through her notes."

"What notes?" Pete furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Well, I clearly lacked important information to understand everything properly." The writer explained seriously. "But it seems that there is - or more will be - an accident with someone at the Warehouse in a distant future. And that there is a mysterious intruder in the Warehouse."

Pete frowned. "A mysterious person? Is this a parallel?"

"Time travelling is very much about parallels," Helena hissed back at him.

"Thank you for that brilliant explanation." Pete replied sarcastically.

"I'm still awake, you two. If you don't stop fighting, I will make you stop." Myka mumbled, still half asleep.

"Of course, darling," Helena rolled her eyes.

"So?" She asked, looking at Pete.

"So what?" He raised both his eyebrows, confused

"So, tell me everything." HG sighed. "From the beginning. When did you get a ping for Boone? What do you know about the artifact? I want to know everything. When did it start?"

"Okay." Pete shrugged, pondering this. "Now that you said you saw the artifact being a wrist watch I would say this is connected on a level beyond just being a simple case."

"Well?" H.G. raised an eyebrow. "So please explain."

Pete sighed deeply before he started to talk: "It all started with Myka's time travel in the Warehouse-"

"Myka's time travel?" Helena looked at Myka in surprise.

"Umm," Pete made, shrugging for a second time.

Myka shifted in bed to look at Helena through tired eyes. "I'm not the Myka you know. I'm sorry I haven't told you, yet."

"Not the Myka I know." The Victorian repeated, her eyes widening. "But you are...?"

"I'm Myka from the future." The younger woman responded and then scrunched her nose. "Wow, that sounds ridiculous. Umm, in the future I came in contact with an artifact and I woke up in my old body in 2013." She explained seriously, weakly waving her hand at every word. 

"Oh." Helena made, lowering her gaze. She seemed to think. "OH." She made again. Louder this time.

Claudia grunted on the couch, shifting suddenly very busily. Everyone in the room held their breaths. When the redhead was quiet again, Helena looked at Myka again. "So...the future?"

"We don't talk about the future," Pete responded in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

Myka nodded in agreement. "That's true."

"But I don't understand. How is that connected to me?" HG asked, shaking her head in confusion.

"So, yes, umm, _basically_ " Pete's eyes darted towards the ceiling, while he fought for words. "We think that _our_ Myka swapped places with future Myka. Is it okay to call you that, Mykes? 'Future Myka'?"

Myka's eyes were already closed again but she grunted in approval.

"How did you come to that conclusion?" Helena blinked a few times, sounding utterly confused. 

"I just thought this would be a good explanation. Myka saw herself in a dream talking to her. And the _other_ Myka in her dream had the same artifact she had. So there are basically two Mykas. Future Myka and ...not future Myka. Do I sound like I'm crazy? Because I have the feeling I sound like I'm crazy," Pete's head turned to Myka.

"No more than usual," Helena replied, rolling her eyes.

"All right. When we were just waiting to see if the artifact had the same effect as your time machine - you know, the 22 hours and 19 minutes." Pete snorted. "It's not the same effect, by the way - we got information about a ping here in Boone. Since you said the artifact used here was a wrist watch, we think this might be a combination artifact or something, because the artifact Myka is dealing with is a wrist watch, too." Pete nodded profusely, crossing his arms in front of his chest, feeling a little proud.

"So can I see it, then? If it's a combination artifact I could recognise it." Helena held out her hand towards Pete.

Pete stood up to get the artifact out of his suitcase. "By the way, can you give me any information about the kidnapper?" He asked while searching through the mess that was in it. He had his own sorting system, but currently, it wasn't working.

Helena watched him with narrowed eyes. "Umm, it's a woman." She stated, bowing her head. "She is a little taller than me. Oh - I injured her face. She now has a cut on her cheek, because I broke her glasses."

Suddenly, Claudia groaned on the couch.

With a lazy shake of his hand, Pete dropped the neutralisation bag with the artifact in it and a pair of gloves into Helena's lap.

"Thank you very much," HG grumbled. "Your mood is so encouranging."

While Helena put the gloves, Pete watched Myka, who had finally fallen asleep over her partner's speech. When the Victorian had pulled out the artifact to turn it in her gloved hands, surveying it thoroughly, the man looked again at her. "You know that she loves you, don't you, HG?" He whispered.

Helena stopped her motion, looking up at Myka, too. She blinked a few times, then she continued observing the object in her hands. "I know." She breathed and then swallowed thickly.

"Don't hurt her, please." Pete regared the Brit with a serious facial expression.

"I'm here in Boone." Helena whispered as she made eye contact. "So I won't."

Pete shook his head. That was actually the problem and HG didn't understand. He was so done with Myka and Helena both not communicating. They had to talk. When this was over, he would force... _present_ Myka and H. to talk to each other.

"Did you see the engraving on the watch?" HG asked, pulling the agent out of his thoughts.

"Engraving? There was no engraving when we examined it at the first time." Pete furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, walking closer to the Victorian.

"Well, it's less a real engraving than something poorly carved." Helena rose from the bed to walk over to the desk. She turned on the desk lamp and held the watch under it.

Pete looked over her shoulder. "Where is it?" He demanded to know.

"Here, on the back of the watch." The Victorian held the watches backside towards him so he could see it in the light of the lamp. "Someone took a pointy object to carve a few words."

"Do they say something?" Pete bumped against Helena's shoulder in excitement, causing her to roll her eyes. He ignored it.

"Yes." The Victorian stated and then started reading out loud: "'Myka, she is Sarah. Go to sleep."

"Is this even grammatically correct?" Pete asked, shrugging. "'She is Sarah'. Sounds wrong to me."

"Who is Sarah?" Helena whispered, turning the watch in her hands and regarding it thoroughly.

"I don't know!" Pete replied, raising his hands towards the ceiling. "Maybe we should concentrate on that question, HG!"

"The kidnapper, maybe?" Helena suggested.

"Oh! That could be right!" The agent agreed. "But who _is_ the kidnapper? And why is there suddenly this engraving in the watch? Did the kidnapper carve it into the watch?"

"I can't believe you were the person who came to the conclusion with the over-time-body-swap, Pete." Helena rolled her eyes. Pete frowned at her, feeling hurt. "The person, who carved this into the watch was obviously not the kidnapper."

"Obviously not?" Pete asked, surprised.

"Obviously not." Helena bowed her head. "The person who carved this refers to the kidnapper as 'She', so there won't be any misunderstandings like with 'Myka, it's Sarah'. This could be read as 'Hello, Myka, it's me, Sarah.'"

"Ah!" Pete made, finally understanding what she tried to say. "So the person who carved that into the watch wanted to tell us that the kidnapper is Sarah."

"That's what I assume." HG replied slowly.

"But who _is_ Sarah?" Pete looked at the Victorian interestedly. 

Helena's eyes glistened for a moment. Pete couldn't tell why but he had the feeling she was sad. "Well, looking at the fact that the words on the watch are addressing Myka," the Victorian sighed, "I would say that 'Sarah' is somebody related in some way to - how did you put it? - 'future Myka'. So Myka will know who she is dealing with."

"Oh great, that sounds logical!" Pete cheered. Quietly, to not wake up Myka or Claudia.

Helena still stared at the watch. "And me." She whispered.

"Pardon?" The agent tilted his head in confusion.

"This _Sarah_ seems to be somehow related to me, too." Helena stated, avoiding his eyes. "In ...Victorian age when I was working on my inventions, I carved rather a lot of things into objects." She looked up at him, swallowing. "This is my handwriting."

"You mean...?" Pete's eyes widened in surprise.

"I think." Helena began after she had taken a deep breath. " I think my future me has written this to brief 'future Myka' on a ... _person_ who is somehow ... well, related to us both. Maybe they have this artifact in the future, too. Since they are able to send us messages by carving something on the watch, the artifact can't really be influenced by time." Helena stated, nodding understandingly. Pete didn't understand a word.

"Umm, ...could you explain that a little easier to us mortals, please?" He asked carefully.

"Well, Pete." HG sat down on the chair in front of the desk. "If I were to carve something into this desk's wood, it would stay and another person in the future could see what I have carved. But if the future person would try to carve something in response, I - in my time - wouldn't be able to see it. But the fact that we are now able to see something somebody in the future has carved into this watch leads me to the conclusion that time doesn't have the same effect on this watch like it has on other objects."

Pete pondered this, then he finally nodded. "Understood." He wasn't really honest, but what did it matter?

The Victorian watched him carefully, then she shrugged. "Alright, there is another part of this message." She whispered, looking at the watch in her gloved hands again. "'Go to sleep'."

Pete scratched his chin. "Should I bring my pajamas?" He suggested.

"No, Pete, it's not adressing you. The whole message is intended for 'Future Myka'. They want her to go to sleep." She looked at Myka on the bed. "Well, this won't be difficult."


	11. Chapter 11

Sarah's Story: Part 1

Sarah wasn't planned. She wasn't wished or desired by her mothers. No unspoken words had made Sarah appear in Helena's and Myka's life.

They didn't even think about children when the incident happened that impregnated Helena.

Helena was back to the Warehouse for about four years when she had finally learned to live with her loss. The conversations with Abigail and Myka's support helped her to reach a state of inner balance - and acceptance.. She was still a very impulsive person, but she could manage her emotions.

Claudia had become caretaker before Sarah happened. And so she was able to feel the change of the Warehouse's feelings towards Helena and Myka. The Warehouse felt - yes, it felt - happy for them and this was the point where it made the decision to give them something that would grow them closer.

One day, this particular artifact fell into Helena's bag. She didn't notice it at first, so it was with them at home - and it had influence on them when they were in bed. When they later found it and neutralised it they weren't sure about how it would affect them. It was a wishing artifact, but they didn't really wish for anything. Because for the first time in their lives, they were happy and with each other. What made Helena become pregnant was the Warehouse's wish to connect them with each other and also with itself. The neutralisation of the artifact had no effect on Helena's pregnancy because the wish had already lead to a new life made of love and happiness. And it wasn't anything like what happened to Pete and Myka back then.

Helena's impulsive side showed up again when she finally found out that the throwing up and mood swings were caused by hormones. She didn't feel ready for this, she was afraid of experiencing the same events she had with Christina. Myka tried to support her in every way possible. But she made sure that it was Helena's part to decide about their future. She couldn't force Helena into giving birth to a child that neither of them had planned. The younger woman held the Victorian when she was sad. She took every outburst of emotions by HG calmly. And she talked to Helena as much as she could but also made sure she had time to be alone. Myka was ready for this child and she wished that Helena would be, too.

When Helena needed time to be alone after an argument with Myka, she entered the Warehouse. The Victorian took a walk between the aisles without a particular direction. This was the first time she felt that the Warehouse and her child shared a connection. The Warehouse showed the writer what it felt like for the child and this made Helena feel acceptance and trust. The Warehouse would take care of her and the child. And with this, HG felt finally free from her anxieties.

Sarah wasn't only made by the Warehouse, she was also born and raised in it. Her parents always tried to give her a life as normal as possible between artifact hunt and saving the world - but Sarah always managed to be brought into the Warehouse. Claudia was the first among the Warehouse family to feel that connection between the girl and the Warehouse properly. So she started taking care of the girl, too. She explained Sarah everything, showed her the world of endless wonder and tried to teach her a responsible behaviour within the Warehouse.

Even though Sarah tried to follow the caretaker's and her mothers' instructions, she got lost a few times between the aisles. It was like she followed her own path made of the scent of apples. The Warehouse played hide and seek with her. It showed her the world of endless wonder and artifacts itself, but alway, it made sure she was safe. Sarah was never _really_ lost, but her explorations always ended up in worried parents looking for her. And of course yelling at her, trying to make sure she would never do that again. They didn't understand that - in a weird way Sarah could not explain- the Warehouse was a parent to her as well. And that she felt inner peace by following its invitations.

Sarah's brother was born when she was six. She soon realised Paul didn't have that connection to the Warehouse she had but it didn't matter to her. She cared about him. And sometimes, she showed him her own world.

Sarah didn't like the fencing lessons. She didn't like the Kenpo lessons and she also didn't like the firing practice when she was older. But she never refused to follow the wishes of her parents to take these lessons. Because she knew it was important to them. Her parents wanted to make sure she was able to protect herself, if necessary. Sarah didn't want to fight, she was a person who liked things peacefully.

But somehow, she knew her relationship with the Warehouse was different from any relationship it had ever had with another person. Even from the caretaker's relationship. Claudia knew this as well, but neither of them could explain why. It was unique - and Sarah liked the Warehouse.

But this only made Sarah feel more desolate after she smelled that particular kind of fudge in the Warehouse for the first time.

Smelling fudge wasn't anything abnormal here, but Sarah had soon managed to differentiate the scents of fudge. If there were snagged, bagged and tagged artifacts out of control, she could smell them. If there was an incident with a strange artifact, she could smell it.

But this one was new. She had never smelled something so intense and it almost numbed the constant scent of apples the Warehouse sent to her.

By now, Sarah was twenty years old. She was back from college for a week. Her mothers had just picked her up from the bus and brought her home. The girl waited for them who stood in the aisle behind her to tag an artifact they had retrieved from a mission. Usually they weren't going on missions anymore, especially not together - but sometimes HG and Myka went out to have a little fun, hunting a smaller artifact like in old days.

Standing in an aisle and listening to her parents laughing, Sarah toyed with her wrist watch. She couldn't really remember that day a strange woman had appeared in the B&B to give it to her. The memory was a little dizzy, but she knew it had happened when she had been around five years old. The watch had always been there. In the first years after she had received it, she had hidden it in a small box under her bed, like the woman had told her. A few years later, she had started wearing the watch. Nobody had really asked her questions about that watch. Only Helena had once looked at it interestedly. But at some point, it had just become a part of Sarah's arm - And toying with the wristband was now part of her behaviour, like her mother would thumb her ring or clutch her necklace.

Myka seemed to notice her daughter's nervous behaviour. Frowing, she looked at her. "Is everything okay, Sarah?"

"Yes, mom, it's just...this smell." The girl wasn't sure what to think about it.

In fact, she was so taken by the scent that she couldn't think clear. And it felt again like the Warehouse was inviting her, asking her to come. Myka and Helena were talking to each other so they didn't realize that their daughter had left the aisle they were standing in, following her feelings.

And now, Sarah also got a different feeling: it was like the Warehouse was afraid.

The girl was confused and the Warehouse felt the same. So she walked through the aisles, searching for a reason for this feeling.

"Sarah!" Myka's voice in a distance behind her."Don't walk through the aisles alone. You know I don't like this!"

Sarah ignored her. Her mother was always afraid something could happen to her but Sarah knew better: The Warehouse would never harm her.

Suddenly, Sarah saw a person running in an aisle in front of her. Then, they quickly disappeared behind a corner. The girl was sure she had seen this apparition so she started following the stranger. This was when the Warehouse's attitude changed aprubtly. It became anxious.

A little lightening hit Sarah at the shoulder, causing her to stop and look up at the ceiling, confused.

"Didn't you see this?" She asked, frowing. "There is someone in the Warehouse who isn't supposed to be here!" She was sure of it.

"Sarah!" Myka suddenly yelled at her. The girl was already in a different aisle. "Where are you? Did you see that flash?"

"Please come back now, darling. Don't do that again. You aren't five years old anymore and we've talked about this." Helena added.

"There is something wrong with the Warehouse!" Sarah replied, walking away from them. "I will take care of this. Please don't follow me, I have to find out myself." She couldn't even explain why she told her parents to stay away from her, but somehow Sarah felt that it was important. Important to follow the other person and to keep her mothers away from her.

"Sarah! Stop! Please!" Myka yelled again, more desperately now.

But Sarah didn't listen. She decided to solve this puzzle on her own. So she walked directly into the aisle where she had seen the mysterious person last.

But the aisle was completely empty. Sarah was confused. And now, the Warehouse started firing several smaller lightnings at her.

_Great._

Now she had three annoying parents after her. She could hear Myka and Helena running through the aisles, looking for her.

While the girl walked on, feeling curious to find out what was happeing here, the Warehouse's lightnings got bigger. And this became more and more mysterious. Was it trying to hold her back? Now, the lightnings didn't only hit her but also her surroundings.

Sarah followed the odd smell of fudge. Suddenly, she heard footsteps right behind her, but when she turned around, there was again nobody in sight. So she changed direction, walking down another aisle in this labyrinth. She entered an area where the shelves were bigger and carried bigger artifacts. Another flash hit her at the shoulder, causing her to freeze.

"Could you please just trust me for once?" She huffed at the ceiling, feeling annoyed. She frowned as she noticed the amount of lightnings running over the ceiling, hitting the ground around her and in different aisles. "There is someone in the Warehouse and we have to find them."

In response, a big flash hit a shelf in a small distance to her. Wood splintered through the aisle, artifacts rained to the groundBeing in shock, the girl jumped back. This wasn't right - something was off and certainly, there was something wrong with the Warehouse. The girl turned around, spotting her mothers in a distance. They were running through an aisle far away but they were definitely approaching their daughter. In the aisle that crossed theirs, Sarah noticed a person sprinting from the right to the left but getting out of sight immediately.

Now, Sarah started running as well. She had to follow the intruder. Getting around the corner, she saw their silhouette far away. The warehouse continued firing lightings again - now not only at her but also at the mysterious other person. Shelves splintered, artifacts fell to the ground, breaking loudly into a million pieces.

Through the noise they caused, Sarah could hear her mothers - they were still yelling at her. Apparently, they tried to stop her, getting closer and entering the aisle she was currently passing.

Suddenly, Sarah heared an explosion right behind her. Apparently, one of the lightnings had hit a shelf in a small distance. Now, the whole shelf broke into two parts and collapsed, causing a rain of splinters and artifacts. The girl spung on her heels and couldn't do anything but staring mesmerisedly at what happened right in front of her. She could feel that the Warehouse didn't intend to break this shelf completely. Maybe the shelf had just been old. With a loud noise, and causing the ground to shake, the shelf hit the ground, burying Sarah's mothers under it.

Sarah just gaped at the heap of debris and dust, she couldn't move, was numbed by the shock. Another yelled loudly far behind her, pulling the girl out of her immobility. "NO!" Sarah spun around, feeling helpless. Another flash, another shelf falling down, Sarah couldn't see who that person was that got burried under it. But she was sure it was the intruder she had tried to find.

Now, she had no mind for them. Instead, she ran towards the spot where she assumed her mothers would lie. She found Helena first. The Victorian's hand appeared unter a smaller wooden beam. "Momma! Are you alright?"

With Sarah's help, Helena managed to get out of the debris. She immediately pulled her daughter into a tight hug. "You're alright!" Then, the Victorian turned around and started looking for her wife, pulling big and heavy wooden beams away. Her face was pale, her eyes glistened almost madly. "Myka?" Sarah swallowed, her mother's voice sounded desperate.

Immediately she helped her mother pulling away another beam - under it, she spotted Myka. They curly-haired woman's forehead was covered in blood - and the floor was it as well. It was Myka's blood. Sarah felt numbed by the Warehouse's grief. It mourned. It mourned and this could only mean... Sarah stood there, pressing her hands into fists, knuckles running white. She felt nothing. Helena knelt down in front of Myka, pulling her dead body close to her chest. "No!" She repeated, again and again, until she went silent.

This was the last time the great H. G. Wells spoke.

Still in shock, Sarah dropped herself down next to her mothers. She pressed her nose in her mother's hair, waiting for the tears to come. But they didn't. She just sat there on the ground, feeling numb. She couldn't feel HG wrappingthe girl's arm around her and Myka's body. Sarah couldn't move as she noticed that her wrist watch started glowing. She just stared at it, but didn't care for it at all. She didn't realise that Helena's and her own grief had created an artifact - it didn't matter to her.

Sarah still felt numb when Steve and Pete found the two of them later. Both women still wrapped around Myka's body like it would change anything. She didn't recognise Pete who carried her out of the Warehouse. She didn't recognise her own bed when they placed her there. She felt nothing.


	12. Chapter 12

Sarah's story - Part 2

Three weeks after Myka's funeral, Sarah sat on her bed in her room, staring out of the window at the backyard. She watched Claudia playing soccer with Paul. The teenager had problem processing what had happened and Claudia took care of him - like she always did. Artie, white haired, and using a stick to walk, just sat down on a bench to watch them.

The door behind the girl opened, causing Sarah to turn around and meet Pete's eyes, who slowly entered her room. He smiled shyly at her, taking seat next to her on the bed. They just shared the silence, but the girl knew he wanted to say something. Pete was the father figure in Sarah's life. He cared about her, had held her during her first heartbreak and had always an open door for her - if she had problems with her parents.

"How is momma?" Sarah asked after a while.

Pete shook his head, sighing deeply.

"Sarah, you have to stop feeling guilty about this. "He stated carefully. "This wasn't-" But Sarah interrupted him.

"It _was_ my fault. Don't tell me it wasn't." She hissed. "If I would have listened for once. I was so sure that- …and I… I- I didn't listen. Again. And this time I managed to break everything with my blind trust in the Warehouse. I killed my mother and I broke my momma. So, don't tell me it wasn't my fault. It was!" She yelled the last sentences at him and then jumped from the bed.

Nervously, she paced through her room, toying with her watch. Her eyes darted through the room, avoiding Pete's.

"I would do anything to undo this... Anything, Pete!" She ranted, feeling the rage growing inside her.

"Sarah, you don't need to be the strong one here." Her mother's partner stated calmly. "You can mourn and cry and let us take care of you." Pete stood up from the bed and walked towards her, trying to take her into his arms.

"Don't." She said, fighting his hands immediately. "Just don't."

She looked one last time into his eyes and then left the room, slamming the door shut. Quickly, she walked through the hall towards her momma's room, meeting Mrs. Frederic, who had just stepped out of it.

Nobody knew Irene's exact age but she looked extremely old. After her disconnection from the Warehouse, she had developed a minor form of dementia. And now, she looked at the girl in front of her, shaking her head while talking to herself. "Dead, crazy or evil." She muttered. "They all end up dead or crazy or evil."

Sarah swallowed down her tears, nodded at the old lady, and then opened the door to her mother's room. Quietly, she closed it right behind herself as she entered the dark room. The rest of the Warehouse family could open the blinds as often as they wanted, Helena always closed them immediately after they had left the room. Sarah assumed the Victorian was seeking for the darkness again. The darkness in which she was trapped for over a hundred years. The same darkness that filled her mind now. Helena had recovered after Christina's death, slowly, eventually. But Myka's death had now broken her completely. The writer hadn't spoken one word after the accident, remained silent - and no one could get her into talking. But Sarah could hear her screaming desperately at night, when the girl was home alone with Paul and her grieving mother.

In the corner of her room, Helena sat in an armchair, staring at her desk. Or at least into the direction of her desk, Sarah couldn't really tell. But she was aware of that Helena was more or less trapped inside her own mind and not really paying attention to the things around her anymore.

Helena's daughter knelt down in front of her mother, placing her own head on the writer's lap, looking for comfort. The girl could feel that after a brief moment, Helena started stroking her hair, carefully raking her fingers through the young woman's curls. They shared the silence for a long while. The soothing movements of her mother's hands on her head caused Sarah to allow herself to let the tears finally come - she always had blinked them away but now, she couldn't keep herself from crying. The girl cried in silence, but her body shook heavily under the writer's hands. 

When she was out of tears, Sarah looked up into her mother's face, not removing her head from the Victorian's knee. Their eyes met, but Helena's were empty and dark. She wasn't _really_ there. It was like her mind had stopped existing.

"I'm so sorry." Sarah whispered. She squeezed her eyes shut when she realised that Helena showed no reaction. Immediately, the girl stood up from the ground, and then leaned forwards to carefully kiss her mother's cheek. Helena's eyebrows twitched a little in reaction, but the Victorian didn't stop staring at the desk with empty eyes. Sarah could feel how her own rage grew again, so she immediately spun on her heels. Toying with her watch, she closed her eyes and tried to take a few deep and steadying breaths. But then, she shook her head and quickly left her mother's room.

While Sarah walked through the house, she could feel how she became angrier and angrier. She hurried down the stairs, heading for the kitchen. Passing the counter, she opened her mother's cupboard and pulled out Myka's tesla. After the girl had left the house, she jumped into her parent's car and then drove down the street with squealing wheels.

Sarah hadn't been at the Warehouse for weeks now. She had avoided it. But now - being this mad - she couldn't think of anything else. Arriving, she directly marched into the Warehouse at a fast pace. Steve - who was sitting in his office - jumped up from his chair and closed the Farnsworth he was holding. Apparently, he had been speaking to the two new agents who were on a mission.

"Sarah, what are you doing here? Are you alright?" The agent asked carefully.

Looking at him, Sarah frowned and then shocked him with the tesla. She had no mind for talking to him and trying to convince him to let her into the building. Steve fell down to the ground, unconscious. But the girl didn't care for him, not now.

Instead, she opened the door to the Warehouse's gallery. She jogged down the stairs to the aisles. And when she was in them, she started running, screaming with all her strength. She couldn't stop screaming.

Sarah could feel the Warehouse's grief. She could feel how it asked for forgiveness, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She couldn't bring herself to stop running and screaming out her pain.

Breathing heavily, Sarah was forced to stop in an aisle full of watches. Immediately, she fell down to her knees, sobbing loudly and trying to catch her breath.

"WHY?" She yelled up at the ceiling.

_It had been an accident_ , she knew.

It had only been an accident.

"I can't accept this!" The girl yelled again. "I was born into this world of endless wonder. This can't just be a coincidence, just a happening, an accident. There must be something to undo this. To set this right. I didn't want this to happen."  


_The ink with which our lives are inscribed is indelible_ , she heard her mother's voice in her mind. She shook her head. The Warehouse wouldn't dare to...

"I don't care!" She shouted. "There must be _something_. I would do anything. Do you listen? _Anything_."

Suddenly, Sarah heard the noise of a small object hitting the ground right behind her. She quickly rose from the ground and turned around to look at whatever had moved over there: A wrist watch had fallen from one of the shelves. With her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, the girl walked over to the watch and picked it up.

She stared at it for a long moment. Then, she looked at her own wrist watch on her arm, noticing they were the same. The watch Sarah just had found didn't look as used as hers - but they looked not only similar but the same.

Pondering this, Sarah got reminded that her own watch had started glowing this mysteriously when her mother died. She had almost forgotten. Had it - maybe - turned into in artifact? Staring at both watches, Sarah tried to remember where she had gotten her own watch from.

_When she had been five years old, she had been in the B &B this day, drawing._

_A woman had taken seat next to her, smiling carefully at the little girl. Sarah had had the distinct feeling to know this woman and so she hadn't been afraid._

_"Hello Sarah, how are you?" The woman had asked, apparently trying to make conversation._

_"I'm fine." Sarah had replied, picking up another crayon and eyeing the stranger warily. She knew she shouldn't talk to strangers. But something about this woman was different._

_"That's a nice drawing." The woman had mentioned in an innocent tone of voice._

_"It's my mommy." The child had responded. "Did you know she has my baby brother inside her belly?"_

_In reaction, the woman had sighed quietly, nodding. "Yeah, I know."_

_"This is mommy. And this is my brother and this is Trailer." Sarah had pointed at her drawing while explaining it._

_"Sarah, can you do me a favour?" The woman had suddenly asked._

_At this point, Sarah had looked up from her drawing to regard her thoroughly._

_"Yes. Of course." She had answered the woman's question._

_"But it has to stay our secret." The woman had stated._

_This had been where the girl's eyes widened. "I love secrets." She had explained excitedly. "I'm good at keeping secrets. My family has a big one but I didn't tell anyone at pre-school."_

_The woman had only chuckled, showing a proud facial expression._

_"That's very good, Sarah. But this one is a bigger one. You can't tell your mommies."_

_"No?" Sarah had asked, confused._

_"No." The woman had been strict about it. "No one. Not your parents, not Pete or Claudia or Steve. Not even Artie and Mrs. Frederic."_

_Sarah had pondered this for a long moment. "Okay." She had looked very seriously at the stranger. "Is it a good secret?"_

_"You promise to not tell anyone?" The woman had asked with her eyebrows raised._

_"I promise to not tell anyone." Sarah had replied. She had been curious about that secret. But she hadn't made a decision yet if she would tell anyone. Before that, she would need to know that secret. "Es- Especially not my mommies, Pete, Claudia and Steve. And also not Mrs. Frederic and not Artie. I wouldn't tell Artie a secret anyway. You can't whisper in his hear, he has hearing problems."_

_The woman had chuckled again, and then she had pulled something out of her black jacket's pocket. She had put it carefully on the table in front of Sarah._

_"This is a very important watch." The woman had explained with a serious facial expression. "You have to keep it. It's important for you and your mommy. At first you should hide it. But later you can wear it. That is important. You can't tell anyone about this watch. That's our secret."_

_"Is it a...cur- curiosity?" Sarah had asked warily._

_The woman had looked proudly at her again. "No Sarah, it's not a curiosity. I promise. I would never give you something that is dangerous."_

_And Sarah had been relieved. If this wasn't an artifact, she wouldn't need to tell her parents and she would be able to keep this secret._

_"Put the watch in your pocket so your mother won't see it, darling." The woman had told her, looking over her own shoulder. "You know, it's our secret, and I have the feeling she will come home in the next few seconds."_

_"Okay." Sarah had nodded, and immediately reached for the watch to put it in the pockets of her trousers._

_The woman had bowed her head and then leaned over the table to look at the girl's drawing more properly. "Now show me your drawing again. This is Trailer?"_

_A few seconds later, her Momma had actually entered the room. Sarah hadn't noticed how Helena had taken position right behind the other woman._

_"Sarah?" Helena had asked in a friendly tone of voice. "Did you show your drawings to your friend?"_

_"Yes, Momma." Sarah had nodded and then looked up. The girl had been able to tell that her mother had been worried._

_"She is okay." Sarah had tried to assure her but Helena hadn't really listened._

_"Sarah, Momma and your friend have to talk. Can you please go outside to Abigail and Claudia? Mommy will come to pick you up with the car."_

_"Okay." Sarah had dropped her crayon to leave the room. After she had left the house, she had happily leaped across the lawn towards Abigail and Claudia, feeling the weight of the watch inside her trousers' pocket._

In the Warehouse, Sarah carefully turned the watch she had found in her hands. Then she looked at her own watch on her wrist.

"You mean that was me?" She whispered with her eyebrows furrowed. It was hard to put any sense into this.

Feeling confused, she shook her head and looked at the ceiling again.

"I'm travelling through time?" She demanded to know, shrugging helplessly. The Warehouse didn't show any reaction. It was silent, like it was waiting for her.

"I can change this?" Sarah asked. A small lightning appeared at the ceiling. Sarah was unsure about the Warehouse's intention. And she didn't know if that meant that her wrist watch was a time travelling artifact. She didn't know if the Warehouse wanted her to change the past. The connection to the Warehouse wasn't the same anymore since the accident. It was afraid to openly show her its intentions. It just showed her an opportunity, but it didn't encourage her.

Silently, Sarah put the new watch in her trousers' pocket. Then, she removed her own watch from her wrist. She surveyed the whole watch thoroughly, looking for something unusual. But she couldn't find anything, so she just pulled out the crown. Slowly, she began to twirl it between her thumb and index finger. Nothing happened. Feeling slightly disappointed, she pressed the crown back into the watch. Immediately, something around her changed and she gasped in reaction.

Sarah suddenly watched herself running through the aisle. It was like she was looking through blurred glass. Sarah couldn't really focus on what she saw, but she was sure she was watching herself. Then, the blurry effect stopped and she could see herself kneeling a few meters in front of her. Sarah held her breath looking down at the watch in her hands. Pondering over what was happening, she became aware of her opportunities. She knew what she had to do. She could change it. She could undo that accident.

Not thinking about anything else than the day her mother died, she twirled the watch's crown several times, before pressing the crown back into the watch. Overwhelmed by the watches energy, the girl stumbled backwards. Her shoulder hit the shelf behind her. When Sarah literally disappeared, a wrist watch fell out of this shelf.


	13. Chapter 13

_It was like looking into a mirror that showed her what she would look like when she was older. Myka looked into the face of her older self and tried to not get lost in thought. Helena had told her what she had to tell her older self. Myka needed to focus. There was so much she wanted to ask that person in front of her, so much to talk about, the questions formed inside her head. The agent felt desperate. When did Helena come back? Myka squeezed her eyes shut to refocus._

_The space around them was dark as the night again. There was only a slight light that seemed to come from their own bodies. It allowed Myka to see her counterpart from the future, who was now trapped in her own life, her present._

_Myka pressed the wrist watch she was holding to her chest, taking a deep breath._

_"Okay, listen, this is very important." She stated seriously. "It seems that you and I swapped places and I'm trapped in your body in 2023 and you are trapped in mine in 2013. These dreams are our only way to communicate properly."_

_The older Myka looked around in curiosity and confusion, before finally focussing on Myka and nodding._

_"That's something we were assuming as well." She replied. "But I can't find any real reason for this circumstance. And have you been visited by a strange woman who truly looks like she is plotting something evil - and has a tendency to kidnap Helena, too? I think we have already seen her when we met in our dreams the last time." ___

_"She kidnapped Helena?" Myka asked surprisedly. "Is she alright?"_

_"Yes, we found her but we lost that woman. It was weird." The older woman shrugged. "I felt ...well... weird and different when I chased the woman, like I wanted to be with her - Oh! She has also a wristwatch artifact and she shot me in the shoulder." Her eyes widened. "Don't worry, your body is alright!"_

_"You haven't read what we carved into the wrist watch, have you?" Myka asked, pursing her lips._

_"Hm?" The other woman's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "No. What did you carve?"_

_Myka scrunched her nose. "That woman is Sarah. It's your daughter."_

_The older Myka gasped surprisedly. "What?"_

_"From the future." Myka explained. "It seems she tries to change something about our future. We assume that her intentions are good but somehow whatever she is doing isn't working and as a side effect of her artifact we swapped bodies."_

_"What is she trying to change?" The older woman made a brief pause. Suddenly her eyes widened." "Remember? She was here the last time we shared a dream, maybe she is here again. SARAH?" The older Myka turned around, moving into a particular direction. Apparently she was assuming it was the direction from which they had heard the strange woman when they had met last._

_"Myka." Myka adressed her older self (and felt odd while doing that). "I don't think that we have much time here. We should probably share some information and solve this ...uhm...well... problem. We have to tell your daughter that the time travelling has to stop because it causes problems like our body swap and our missing days. Did you have a missing day, too?"_

_She heard another gasp from of the shadows and frowned. "Is everything alright?"_

_Now, the younger woman was concerned and followed the older Myka into the shadows to check on her. Her older version was kneeling a few metres from her. In front of her: The body of a young woman._

_"Who is that?" Myka asked as she surveyed the figure on the ground. The agent's eyes widened in surprise. "Is it... oh no!"_

_Suddenly, Myka felt desolate. She didn't really recognise the woman on the floor, because she had never seen her before in reality. She had always just heard Helena's descriptions of the woman who had intruded the B &B. But the black curls and the wide-open but empty green eyes reminded her of the little girl she had met the day before: It was Sarah. And Sarah was dead._

_"How is this possible?" Myka whispered, staring down at the back of older Myka's head to avoid looking at the young woman's body. "This doesn't make any sense to me. How can she share a dream with us while being dead?"_

_The older Myka made a suffocated sound. "Remember when Helena and Artie told us that time travel was a physical impossibility?" She shook her head slightly. "She must have come in contact with an incredibly strong artifact. I guess..."_

_Myka nodded understandingly. It actually helped to think about the circumstances of their time travel instead of the fact that there was Sarah right in front of them. Dead. "Yes, she was able to take her own body with her while travelling through time. That's physical time travel. And her desire to change our future must have dragged us with her." She bowed her head while talking. "'And the artifact steals time from whole cities. Univille missed a whole day." Now the agent realised she was babbling nonsense. The daughter of her future-self was lying dead in front of them. Myka was sure her future version wasn't even listening._

_And indeed, the older Myka started to gently stroke her daughter's hair._

_"Whatever happened in the future is awful." She mumbled, blinking repeatedly. "It can't happen. We have to set this right."_

_"Are you hearing yourself talking?" Myka asked horrifiedly. "What do you want to do? Use her artifact? We can't manipulate time with artifacts. You know what the consequences could be. This is a really complicated situation and we can't complicate it more by using time trav-."_

_"Myka, please!" Her older version interrupted her, glaring with desperate eyes at her. "This is my daughter and she is dead. I can't let this happen."_

_Myka rubbed the back of her neck, dropping her gaze to the invisible ground. "I - I know." She stuttered. "I just... I met her. I met your daughter. She is lovely and she... I have so many questions. But we can't..."_

_Her older version rose from the ground, narrowing her eyes at the younger agent. "I'm willing to answer all those questions you have." She stated seriously. "But you have to promise me that we will find a way to set this right. We have to help our daughter." She looked down to the figure on the ground. "She is not evil, she can't be evil. Even though you could think this by the things she seemed to have done. There must be something happening she can't control. And she doesn't deserve an end like this."_

_Myka pondered this, looking at her older self at first and then down to the dead girl on the ground. "Okay." She finally nodded, swallowing thickly. "We will find a way to deal with this. I will talk to Helena and everyone else in - well - your time. They will help. We'll find a way. I promise to try."_

_The older Myka crossed her arms in front of her chest, regarding her younger version with a very serious facial expression. Then, her face softened._

_"You don't have to worry about Helena, Myka." She mentioned, looking like she tried to comfort the younger woman. "I can remember that everything that has happened back in your time confused me so much. But you have to know that Helena loves you and that she will come back to the Warehouse and …to you." In reaction to her words, Myka lowered her gaze away. "All you have to do is to give her time. You were right when you said that she isn't an ordinary person, but she needs time to find her way back to you. She needed a break from all this. She is still in grief about her daughter. And she will still struggle with it when she comes back... but it will happen. And one day you will become that family that you are seeing in my present, I'm very certain about this." The older Myka smiled while her younger version didn't even try to think about what this 'family' would mean for them. "Trust me. Trust Helena. She isn't running away from your mutual truth."_

_As she heard that, Myka felt the tears form in her eyes. She blinked repeatedly to get rid off them. But then, when the older Myka closed the gap between them and put a hand on her shoulder - apparently trying to comfort her - she jolted upright in bed, breathing heavily. Their dream was over._

_____________________________________________

2013

Opening her eyes, Myka frowned in pain. Her shoulder felt like it was about to combust. Slowly and very carefully she sat up, reaching for the painkillers and the water on the nightstand. While she took them, her view wandered around the hotel room. The early morning light shone through the curtains.  
Pete sat in the office chair bent over the desk, head resting on his arms, snoring. Myka was sure he would complain about back ache all day.

Helena was curled up on the foot end of the bed. It didn't look very comfortable to the younger woman. She smirked mischievously.

Then, she met Claudia's eyes. The redhead sat on the couch, looking at Myka over the rim of her laptop. She was asking a silent question, causing Myka to smile weakly. "Still future Myka and still in pain." She tried to shrug, but this was only rewarded with pain.

Claudia sighed, put the laptop away and rose from the couch. "Would future Myka appreciate some coffee? I just decided to walk down and get us some."

The older woman nodded. "That sounds perfect."

Right after Claudia had left the room, Pete woke up. He groaned loudly and then started yelling: "Oh my god! What happened to my back? It feels like a truck ran over it while I was sleeping."

Helena immediately opened her eyes, almost jumping out of bed.

"Pete! That's the most awful way to wake up, rudely awakened from a dream by your voice!" She ranted at him. The man rolled his eyes, standing up from the chair.

"Good morning." Myka chuckled a little. 

While she watched the two of them glaring indignantly at each other, she became aware of her dream again. Myka squeezed her eyes shut, trying to concentrate and get rid off the sudden pain in her chest.

Slowly opening her eyes again, the curly-haired woman noticed that Helena massaged her own temples. "Is everything alright?" The younger woman asked worriedly.

"I feel dizzy again." Helena explained her behaviour. "Same as yesterday."

"Is it bad?" Pete tilted his head questioningly.

"No." HG replied slowly. "Not that much. I think I can handle this."

Myka sighed. She had to talk about what was happening. "Okay, I think we need to talk about this case. I had another dream-" She was interrupted by her partner on duty.

"I think we know in which direction this is going." He said , holding up the the artifact bag. "Someone from the future sent us a little message." He glanced at HG.

Helena regarded the younger woman thoroughly. "Who is Sarah?" She asked with her eyes narrowed.

Myka sighed. Again. Her younger version had mentioned in the dream they had shared that they had carved something into the watch to communicate with her. Of course Helena and Pete had read it already.

"Message?" She asked Pete nonetheless. "What did the message say?"

"'Myka, she is Sarah. Go to bed.'" Pete quoted, sounding utterly proud for some reason. "And we think with 'she' they were referring to our beloved kidnapper. So, who is Sarah?"

Desperately, Myka tried to find a way to explain this right without telling them too much. Without ruining the possibility of her own presence. It was a fact that she needed help to solve this puzzle. She had to find the artifact and... - maybe the dead body of her daughter. Myka had to set this right, to undo whatever had killed her daughter or would kill her. And maybe also she also had to finish what Sarah had started by trying to change Myka's future. Whatever happened to Myka in the future must be awful enough to lead into the death of her daughter. Myka couldn't possibly imagine what this might be. She needed help. So she sighed and made a decision.

"In the future, Pete," She stated carefully, looking directly into her partner's eyes. "I am married and I have a daughter."

Pete started coughing immediately. "What? _You?_ "

"I have." Myka briefly glanced over to Helena, who had lowered her gaze to the ground. "I won't tell you who her father is or to whom I am married. That's everything you need to know. My daughter's name is Sarah. The kidnapper is my daughter."

Now HG looked up at the younger woman, staringbluntly. The Victorian toyed with her locket, her eyebrows furrowed. Then, she nodded thoughtfully. "The eyes." She mumbled quietly.

"That doesn't make any sense, Mykes." Pete shrugged and started pacing around the room. "Why didn't you tell us after you saw her? I mean if she really _is_ your daughter, you would have recognised her, wouldn't you? And you would have told us?" Myka's partner started rubbing his back, apparently to get rid off the pain. The curly-haired woman couldn't tell if the pain in his eyes was from his back or from the disappointment that she hadn't told him about the relationship between her and the kidnapper. Myka sighed annoyedly.

"Pete, do the math." She huffed. "I'm from 2023. That's ten years from now. The woman we've met is at least 20 years old. In my time, Sarah is 5 years old, Pete. Five. My five year old Sarah doesn't kidnap anyone, especially not her... not Helena. The woman we've met is from at least 15 more years in the future from my point of view, so 25 years from now. I didn't tell you that the kidnapper is my daughter because I didn't recognise her. Because even though I'm from the future I still can't look into the future and imagine how my daughter would look like in 15 years."

Pete kicked the chair in a violent burst of energy. "Great." He ranted. "Now my back and my brain hurt because of all this future talk. I'm confused!"

"We are all confused." Myka agreed, eyeing her partner warily. "But that doesn't lead us anywhere. It's a fact that she tried to change something about my future and it killed her, Pete."

Helena looked at her in shock. "What do you mean by that?"

"I have some kind of dream connection with my younger self. Maybe due to the artifact." Myka scrunched her nose. "That's why they wanted me to go to sleep. In the first dream I shared with the younger Myka, I met Sarah without knowing who she was. And in the dream I had tonightmy daughter was there again but she was dead. I can't let this happen. I don't know what is happening in the future, but we have to change it."

Helena's eyes softened. "Myka." She whispered. "We can't help her manipulate time -"

"Why?" The younger woman glared at the Victorian. "Why can't we? If she tried to rescue me and herself, we must do something …There must be something we can do." She felt tears forming in her eyes."

HG swallowed, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Do you hear yourself talk, Myka?"

"What?!" Myka hissed.

"You remind me of myself all that time ago." The Victorian pursed her lips. "Losing a child is the worst that can happen to a mother. But you haven't lost your child yet. You mentioned that your daughter is five years old in your time and that she is alive, she is well. Whatever happens in the future isn't that certain. I assume you are changing it just by your presence in this time, aren't you?"

"Well, we are definitely dealing with Sarah's presence in this time and that means it will happen, doesn't it?" Myka gave back, trying to fight her tears. She indeed understood Helena's comparison, but it hurt. She couldn't really thinkg about this. Ignoring the pain in her shoulder, she rose from the bed, heading for the bathroom door. When she was passing the other woman, Helenaputa hand on her wrist , but Myka waved it off immediately. She couldn't deal with this now. She wanted to be held by her wife, by _her_ Helena. And being this situation - in which she couldn't tell her own wife that the daughter she was talking about was _their_ daughter - made her feel more helpless. Without another word Myka walked into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind herself and locking it immediately. Sitting down on the floor next to the shower she finally allowed herself to cry silently.

_______________________________________________

In the hotel room, Pete and Helena stared at the door and then glared at each other.

"Wow, that so did not help." Pete rolled his eyes.

"I didn't intent to say anything that could hurt her, Pete. I wanted to say something to calm her down. And …I failed at it." HG admitted, pursing her lips.

Pete bowed his head. "I think, it's the best we leave her alone for the moment."

"Agreed." The Victorian slowly nodded.

Now, the agent walked over the TV on the wall, picking up the remote from the coffee table to turn it on.

"What are you doing now?" Helena asked interestedly.

"Well." Pete shrugged. "I don't know what you're doing but I'm still on an artifact hunt, so I will watch the local news to do some research." He looked over his shoulder at HG. "And I have a vibe."

"A vibe?" Helena asked surprisedly while standing up from the bed and approaching him.

"Yeah, a vibe that tells me I should definitely turn on the TV." Pete stated, looking again at the screen. He turned up the volume.

Currently, there was the news anchor talking: "...does it seem like the events in Boone are repeating. The city does miss a day again. Scientists and government tried to explore the phenomenon, entering the city yesterday while Boone was again silent and didn't respond to any attempt to get into contact, but the communication broke after walking over a ten mile border. There is still no explanation for this. The scientist have now started contacting us from their place in the city and it is said that they walked in, waking up today with no memory of yesterday. Satellite pictures of Boone show that the whole city was inactive yesterday. The city is currently under quarantine. No one is allowed to go in or come out..."

Pete stared mesmerisedly at the screen. "Are you thinking what I am thinking?" He asked without looking at Helena.

Helena surveyed him for a moment. "I feel dizzy." She mentioned carefully. "Just like yesterday. And we are missing another day. The last time this happened..."

"Sarah showed up." Pete finished her sentence.

"How can this be if she is dead like Myka said?" Helena asked with her eyebrows furrowed.

"I have a big big vibe that somehow, she isn't dead." Pete responded in a suspicious tone of voice. Then, hee looked around the room.

"Where the hell is Claudia?" He asked worriedly.


	14. Chapter 14

Claudia tried to remember the last time she had been this frustrated. The redhead was staring at the 'CLOSED' sign at the door of the local coffee shop, groaning loudly. She needed caffeine. Desperately.

"There are enough people in the world who are running on coffee and can't operate without it." She ranted at the sign. "There must be at least two of them in this dump of a city and I do believe closing your shop in the morning is a bad _bad way of trying to make any profit!"_

Annoyedly, she kicked the lower part of the door. "COFFEE!" She yelled.

"Oh, is this shop closed, too?" She heard a throaty female voice from behind her. Claudia couldn't quite classify her accent. The redhead turned around. A woman around her age stood in front of her, smiling shyly but also looking disappointedly at the "CLOSED' sign. The stranger was wearing black clothes, and had long black curls. Claudia noticed that the girl was also extremely pale and the dark circles around her eyes stood out prominently. Claudia assumed she had either a very fucked up sleeping schedule or she was looking to become part of a Addams family re-enactment.

"Well, I admit that currently, this town is in a strange situation, but they could at least sell some coffee so that we all can manage to think properly." The woman shrugged, pouting.

"Hm, strange situation?" Claudia asked, feeling confused. She couldn't help but stare at the big fresh cut the woman had on her cheek. Quickly, the redhead forced her eyes away, because she knew staring was rude. First rule for people who didn't have much social contact: Don't stare, no matter how odd people looked like.

The woman chuckled with her green eyes glistening. "The two missing days?" She suggested.

"Oh! Right!" Claudia put her palm to her forehead. "I'm sorry but my brain does this funny thing where it doesn't really work without coffee. And I just got up a few minutes ago. I'm not fully awake yet."

"Oh, I feel you." The woman replied, nodding understandingly.

"Wait. _Two_ missing days? We're missing another one?" Claudia's eyes widened as she became aware of the information the other woman just had given her.

"Oh, you did really just wake up, didn't you?" The stranger winked at her. '"It's everywhere on the news: Boone misses another day and the whole city is under quarantine. It's the dumbest idea ever - if you ask me. I really don't think that missing time is something like a virus that could spread from a town to another. But who does understand the government?"

"Yeah," Claudia replied, laughing nervously. "The government does very strange things - sometimes." _Like hunting down mysterious objects and storing them in The World's Junk Drawer,_ she thought.

"So the whole town is up and occupies the city's borders trying to get out. Of course. Because this is what happens if you put whole cities under quarantine. A mass panic is really something this city needs." The woman nodded, giving Claudia a slight grin.

"So, what are you doing here?" Claudia asked interestedly.

"Oh, I was on my way to work when I realised that something was wrong and now I'm heading home." The stranger narrowed her eyes ever so slightly and then smiled again. "Because I'm really not that much into mass panics. So I think I'm going to stay home and do something on my computer to kill time - until this whole situation is over."

"Sounds like a plan." Claudia admitted and then yawned profusely.

"Oh, you really do look like you could take some coffee." The dark-haired woman snorted. "But today is your lucky day - What is your name, by the way?"

"Claudia." Claudia replied automatically.

"Nice to meet you, Claudia. I'm Sarah." 

Trying to hide another yawn behind her right hand, Claudia weakly waved her left one at the girl. "Nice to meet you too, Sarah. You said something about today being my lucky day?"

"Yes." Sarah's eyes glistened. "I have to admit that I'm a real caffeine addict. I always bring a self-made thermos bottle of coffee to work. To have something for the day. But in the morning I also visit a coffee shop to get some fresh coffee there. It's like an odd behaviour."

"I don't judge odd behaviours, Sarah." Claudia smiled tiredly.

"So, I have coffee." The other woman mentioned. "It's not that fresh anymore but it's still hot. We could share?"

"Are you an angel?" Claudia's eyes widened in excitement.

"No, I just have coffee." The girl put her backpack down to the ground to open it and to pull out a thermos bottle. With an elegant move, she opened it and poured some coffee into the cap. Claudia smiled weakly when she smelt the scent of her most favourite liquid.

"Oh, sweet black gold of neurotoxin that keeps me awake all day... and all night if I have to." Claudia sung quietly.

"You're funny." Sarah stated while handing the cap to the redhead. "There you go."

"Thank you so very much." Claudia sighed, bringing the bottle's cap to her lips. But before she was able to enjoy her coffee, she was _disturbed_ by her Farnsworth buzzing.

"Oh, holy sucking frak!" The redhead ranted while pulling the communication device out of her pocket. Carefully, she looked at Sarah. "Don't assume I'm stealing the cap of your bottle. I will just be around the corner ...if you could excuse me for a second? I have to... take this call. It's the new Iphone." She added quickly, noticing the other woman's curious look.

"I won't even ask what that device does." Sarah shrugged, looking up to the sky.

"I will be back in a few minutes." Claudia waved her hand. "I promise."

The other girl only nodded, so Claudia felt free to walk around the next corner, looking for some privacy.

"What is it?!" Claudia ranted at Pete's face which just had appeared on the Farnsworth's screen.

"Oh Claudia!" The older agent sighed, apparently relieved. "I'm so glad you are alive and well. God knows what could have happened to you."

The redhead raised an eyebrow. "Could have happened to me? Pete you are talking like somebody could be around the corner, intending to murder me!"

"Maybe there is!" He nodded, profusely, eyes darting to something out of sight. "Claudia, listen: please come back to the hotel room and be as careful as you can manage. Sarah could out there-"

"Sarah?" Claudia asked, surprised. "How do you know about Sarah?

"Sarah is Myka's crazy daughter from the future, who is basically the new Lady Cuckoo-" Pete was interrupted by HG's voice. "Pete you don't even know if she is crazy or evil!"

"Well, HG." Pete rolled his eyes. "At least it seems she isn't dead." He looked again at Claudia."But she seems to have the urge to kidnap the other Lady Cuckoo here." He paused, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "Wait, Claud, did you say 'How do you know about Sarah' instead of 'Who is Sarah'?"

Claudia blinked a few times. "What are you even talking about, Pete? In human, please. I'm not good in speaking Petester before I had my first coffee." She again brought the cap with the coffee to her mouth.

"Sarah is the kidnapper, Claud!" Pete gave her a serious look. "And I'm afraid she is plotting something evil."

Immediately, Claudia took the coffee cup away from her lips. She glared at it in disgust, dropping it to the ground. "Yikes!"

"God! I really dislike that it always has to go this way." Sarah's voice sighed deeply next to the redhead. The last thing Claudia noticed before passing out was the noise of a Tesla and then a bright flash.

______________________________________

"Damn it!" Pete yelled while he watching how Claudia fell to the ground. He noticed how Claudia's Farnsworth was picked up from the ground. The face of a strange girl showed up on the screen. She really looked a lot like Myka.

"Yes, hi there, Pete." The girl greeted him with a slight wave of her arm. "Sarah here. I really don't like the name 'Lady Cuckoo'. I think we all know what's going to happen now. I will steal Claudia's key to your hotel room and sneak up on you. You all will hide somewhere behind furniture and pop out like it's my surprise birthday party and then you will try to fight me and threaten me with your Teslas and your guns. Just in case you didn't know: I have a tesla, too. I just used it on Claudia. And it's one of them which recharge."

"Stop it right there, you cheeky little girl!" Pete huffed at the screen. Sarah had tesla'd Claudia and she had shot Myka. That girl wasn't trustworthy.

"But then," Sarah continued, ignoring him, "you will realise that I practiced martial arts with each of you all my life and that I can easily anticipate your moves. I know all your blind spots. Even though I hate knowing your blind spots. Then you will maybe threaten me with a gun or stun me with a tesla or I don't know ...knock me out or anything like that." She sighed. "I'm tired, Pete! I would really appreciate it if I could just walk up to your room and share my coffee with you and talk to HG in private. Then, I will be able to do what I'm trying to do and end this farce and we will all live happily ever after."

"To hell with you!" Pete yelled again. "You shot Myka and you tesla'd Claudia. I don't trust you the tiniest bit. God knows what you are plotting and now you've made Myka believe it's for the greater good or something." He closed the Farnsworth with a loud and angry huff.

_________________________________________

"Hot-head." Sarah told the black screen. She looked at Claudia. "I'm really sorry, my friend. That wasn't what I was up to." She put her hands under Claudia's arms and pulled her up against the stone wall of the coffee shop. Then she searched through the redhead's pockets for the hotel key.

"Oh, and the coffee wasn't poisoned." She mentioned, looking fondly at the other woman. "You really did look like you needed caffeine."

________________________________

2023

"Dead?" Helena asked, gazing at Myka on the bed with her mouth opened and her eyes widened.

"I can just tell you what I have seen, Helena." The younger woman replied, her voice shaking. "Oh god, please don't be scared. It's... I'm so sorry. You can't go through this again."

She watched Helena swallow. The Victorian's lower lip quivered, causing Myka to feel heartbroken. Cumbersomely and still trying to adjust herself to the weight of her own body, Myka rose from the bed, approaching the writer.

"Listen." Myka started, placing her hand on Helena's shoulder. "She is alive. Helena, your daughter is alive. You held her in your arms just yesterday, remember? In front of your car. And your wife is alive, too. They are both fine. We both don't know what exactly happens in the future so we can't make assumptions. Grief about circumstances that didn't happen yet doesn't help. Please stay with me, Helena. I need your strength, now. We must find a solution and we need both our minds for this."

While HG stared at Myka's feet, her hand wandered to her locket. Her eyes were filled with tears. Eventually, the older woman shook her head.

"We will support Sarah, if she is coming to our time again." She stared in a strict tone of voice. "Everything she needs. I can't lose you or her. No matter what we need to do to set this right. She will get our help."

"You do sound like your wife." Myka smiled shyly. "In our shared dream, she said that, too. Listen, I made her a promise and I make that promise to you, too. We will find a way, okay? You don't need to worry. Just yesterday you told me my future wasn't that certain and I will tell you this now: We write our future ourselves and anything we do influences it, Helena. We could be able to change this."

In this moment, Myka felt the child inside her move again. She sighed. Somehow, she knew that she wanted this future to happen. Even though she wasn't ready for children. This future meant having Helena in it. It meant having a family with her. And Myka really hoped there was a way to have this family without whatever incident Sarah was trying to change. There had to be a way.

And then, there was this feeling. With her eyes widening, Myka looked up at Helena.

"Helena, where is the artifact?" She asked, her voice trembling again.

"The artifact? In the B&B. Why do you ask?" Helena looked at her in obvious confusion.

"Because I need it. We must go to the B&B, now." The younger woman demanded. Then she looked down at herself, still wearing her pajamas. "I need to change very fast and then we have to go to the B&B."

"Myka? What's going on?" Helena sounded concerned.

"I don't know. I can't explain it. It's like the artifact is calling me. Helena, I have to touch the artifact. It's very important." Myka moved over to the dresser to pull out a drawer.

"Important in which way?" HG went into the topic.

"In a 'I have this big urge to touch it and I've got the feeling my head would explode if I don't" kind of way." Myka ranted, raising her hands towards the ceiling. "Important, Helena! Artifact important!"

Helena only stared at the younger woman in shock.

____________________________________________________

2013

Sarah had fought well. HG and Pete had struggled a lot with her. The girl was nimble and strong and had slipped through their hands like an animal. But then Myka had managed to tesla her from her bed. She didn't want to hurt her daughter, but all of them were afraid of her. She had attacked Claudia. Something couldn't be right with her. Myka had adjusted the Tesla to a minimum so that Sarah would be simply unconscious for a short time. Pete had handcuffed her to the heating under the window. After the fight, Helena had walked down to the coffee shop to get Claudia, who now sat semi-conscious on the couch.

"I still had no coffee." The redhead mumbled. "How am I supposed to handle being tesla'd without coffee? I found hell! Next time please update me on homicidal daughters _before_ I leave for coffee!"

Myka was looking at her daughter, whose chin had fallen to her own chest. The girl groaned quietly, blinking, and then finally opened her eyes her eyes. She looked around the room, focussing on Myka, then Helena and Pete at last.

"I told you so." Sarah smirked, looking deeply into Pete's eyes. "Either way, we are now in a situation we all can talk. I mean... obviously, you did have a big urge to fight me because you thought you'd have to protect yourself from me. But in fact I had to protect myself from you. But now we are all here, nice and cuddly sitting around the room. I do believe we can talk now, can't we?" She looked at her hands that were cuffed to the heating right next to her head.

"Seriously?" She chuckled. "Handcuffs? You do know who I am related to?"

Immediately, the girl started moving her hands but stopped, apparently becoming aware of the noise of Myka's loading Tesla. She looked at her mother interestedly.

"Easy with the handcuffs, Missy." Myka stated calmly.

Sarah looked at her mother's face, smiling. Then her gaze wandered over to Pete, who stood in the corner, one hand on his gun at his waist. After that, the girl's eyes met Helena's, who leaned at the door. Sarah frowned while looking at Helena.

"Wait, you don't." The girl noted, looking from Helena to Claudia and then back to Myka. "You didn't tell them? What do they think? Let me guess. They just know that I'm _your_ daughter, Myka, and that's just half the story, isn't it?" She laughed a little mischievously, looking at HG.

"Shut up." Myka instead. "Instead of mocking, you will spill the reason why you are here." Myka was afraid of the girl in front of here. Somehow she looked scary. Her face was pale and she had circles around her eyes which were dark enough for four people.

"Well, to be able to do that I will have to tell the whole story, mom." Sarah nodded. "And you are afraid that it will change everything if Helena knows, don't you?"

"If I know what?" HG asked interestedly. Myka could see that the Victorian didn't know what to think about this strange girl sitting in front of her, looking a lot like Myka. Clearly, this was a reason for Helena to trust her. But for Myka, Sarah also looked nervous and almost mad and she was sure Helena was noticing this as well. The writer swallowed, again rubbing her temples. The curly-haired woman assumed the dizziness Helena had described was there again. They had found a wrist watch in Sarah's pocket and placed it on the table along with the girl's other possessions.

Myka could clearly tell that Helena was influenced by that artifact. Just as she was herself, feeling the urge to be with its owner. She had mentioned it towards the other woman while waiting for the girl to wake up. Helena had nodded understandingly, while Pete and Claudia didn't feel anything about it at all.

"Don't be afraid, mom." Sarah looked at Myka. "This whole mission is a failure. It doesn't work. Nothing is changing." She looked down to her feet with a sad facial expression.

"What are you trying to change?" Her mother asked, genuinely interested. "What is happening to me that made you travel through time? Why did I see you dead in my dream?"

"Dead?" Sarah tilted her head in obvious confusion. "I'm not dead. I'm alive." She gasped, apparently remembering something. "Oh...right, but that _other_ Sarah. She is dead. I'm really sorry about that." 

"What is going on with you, dear?" Helena looked at the girl with her eyes narrowed. "You look rather nervous. You are sweating. You are pale. Something is clearly wrong with you. You look like death."

"Well, I haven't slept in five days, for example." Sarah shrugged. "Or eaten very much. Just coffee. And I'm travelling through time. That's all pretty exhausting."

"I can only assume what you are going through." HG mentioned.

"Not even the tiniest bit." Sarah smirked. "Don't get me wrong. I'm a very well-behaved and usually, I'm a rather peaceful girl, but somehow I have the feeling that I'm slowly going mad. I don't recognise myself anymore."

"Then let us help you." Myka said calmly.

"That's what I'm up to." Sarah looked at her. "But I'm chained to a heating and you are pointing a Tesla at me while uncle Pete is two seconds away from shooting me with his gun." She looked again at Pete with both her eyebrows raised.

"Uncle?" He asked surprisedly, letting go off his gun on his belt.

"Of course." Sarah chuckled again and then shook her head. "The Warehouse is my home. I grew up in the Warehouse. You are my nice uncle who played baseball with me and taught me how to dance." She looked at Claudia.

"And you took care of me after you realised that I have this special connection to the Warehouse, Claudia. That I could become your successor as a caretaker for the Warehouse." The redhead's eyebrows furrowed surprisedly. " _My_ successor as a caretaker?" She asked quietly, but Sarah didn't reply.

Instead, the girl looked at everybody, one after another.

"You were all so good to me and this is why I have to set this right. No matter what I have to do for that. I have to rescue the small family we are."

"What happened to this family?" Myka asked, but got no reply. Sarah only stared at Helena's face, looking more confident but also sadder by the minute. Myka watched Helena's eyebrows furrow. The Victorian was clearly struggling with looking at the girl.

Sarah sighed and then looked at her mother. "If you could just please allow me to get out of these handcuffs, mom. I promise I won't fight you or anyone else. You know that I had no bad intentions entering this room and that I didn't want to fight. I still have no bad intentions. But I messed up everything and I want to set this right. But I need your help. _Please?"_ Myka could feel her heart break at Sarah's desperate facial expression.

She looked over to Pete, who nodded slightly. Then, the agent she lowered her Tesla.

Sarah smiled weakly. With three quick movements of her hands, the handcuffs were gone.


	15. Chapter 15

Sarah's story - Part 3

2013

Rubbing her wrists, Sarah rose slowly from the ground and then sat down on the chair by the desk. Pete was observing her warily.

"Well then." The girl shrugged, looking at Myka. "Do you want to tell her?" She nodded in Helena's direction. "Or should I? If you ask me, you should really do that on your own."

Myka only sighed.

"Tell me what?" Helena asked, looking questioningly at Myka. "Myka, please just tell me. It can't be that bad, can it?"

With her lips pursed, she looked at her future wife. The agent knew that if she wouldn't do this, Sarah would tell her anyway. So there was no way to get out of this situation. Slowly, Myka put the Tesla on the night stand, bowing her head.

"Helena, Sarah is my daughter as I told you. But that's just half the truth like she said." Myka swallowed thickly. When her eyes met Helena's she had to fight the urge to walk over to her and take her into her arms.

"What are you trying to say?" Helena's face showed confusion and also fear. Myka could tell that Helena wasn't ready for being told that she would have another child.

"Sarah has two mothers." Myka swallowed again. Claudia straightened herself on the couch and gasped quietly. She looked at Myka, Helena and then at Sarah. Pete wasn't that fast and regared Myka with his eyebrows furrowed. Helena just gaped at the curly-haired woman with her mouth slightly opened.

"You and Me, Helena." Myka whispered, squeezing her eyes shut. When she opened her eyes again, bold enugh to look at Helena again, she could see the woman being hit with realisation.

With her eyes widened, Helena approached the bed and steadied herself on its wooden frame while sitting down on it. Clutching her locked, the Victorian shook her head. Myka just stared at her back, fighting for more words to come.

"Listen." Sarah shrugged. "I know that this is too much for now, but we have to..."

Pete shook his head. "Just give them a little time, okay? _I_ have to process this and I can just imagine how much it is for HG."

Sarah nodded. "We have time." She said. "It's just... I'm so tired." She rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Helena, listen." Myka moved on the bed towards the Victorian. She wasn't bold enough to touch her but she needed to comfort her. "There will be a time when you'll be ready to come back to the Warehouse and when you'll be ready to... come back to me. There will be a time when you feel better, when you are alright again. Sarah is our little beautiful wonder and she brings so much happiness into our lives. She is good. For you and for me. I know that right now you can't imagine having another child but you will be ready for this. Someday. Look at her, Helena. She is ours and she is healthy and alive. You are able to protect her from anything harmful."

HG turned her head towards Sarah, her eyes full of tears. Sarah smiled sheepishly, then she looked at Myka, whose face was filled with concern. Myka knew that Sarah had to tell them what was going on in her time and somehow she knew it would hurt.

"Helena." The curly-haired woman started again. "You told us that you couldn't change your past. But your future is something you decide about yourself. It's not set in stone. Everything about your future is your decision. Me and Sarah are just a possible outcome of your decisions, but - and although saying this hurts so much - you can decide to not have this future, if you want."

Sarah snorted.

Myka closed her eyes firmly, taking a deep breath. Then she met Pete's eyes. He looked at her understandingly and fondly. He cared so much about her.

After a few more moments, Helena nodded, still looking at her daughter. She surveyed her face, her tired eyes, the way she smiled, those lips, her jawline. Myka could see it. The Victorian swallowed thickly before mumbling: "In some way I knew it." 

Sarah looked as surprised as Myka felt.

"While we were talking about the time travel, when gave me all the facts I needed to help you, I kind of knew. I couldn't tell what it was, it just felt right." Helena turned around to focus on Myka. "It's just incredibly hard to process."

"I know. I can't stop thinking about everything you currently have to accept and I wish we could have left this part out." The younger woman sighed deeply. "I hoped we could leave you without this information, so you wouldn't struggle with more."

"Myka, don't assume this breaks me." Helena replied, shaking her head. "It's just that I believe I'm not ready for this. I need my time. But it is true that I do lo-"

"Helena, you don't need to admit anything to me." Myka interrupted her. " _I_ know your feelings, I understand what you're going through. I am your _wife_! ... I mean, in the possible future." The curly-haired woman sighed. "The only person who needs to know what you feel is... the Myka from your time. She struggles with her own feelings towards you and is so insecure about you. The fact that you left the Warehouse to be with Nate and Adelaide did hurt her so much. I think you have no idea how much."

"I didn't even know about your feelings." Helena responded and then glared at Pete, who had snorted.

Myka nodded. "That's why you two need to talk to her as soon as you feel ready. But the time will come - when this whole situation is over. I mean, when we've finally dealt with your problem." She addressed Sarah with the last part of her speech. "Do tell."

Sarah covered her face with her hands to rub her eyes.

"It's hard to explain how I got into this situation." She stated, taking her hands away again. "I'm going to college..."

"Good kid." Claudia grinned. Sarah raised an eyebrow at her.

"What?" Claudia asked. "It's good to go to college and not going all deep into that Warehouse fun-a-rama, although you basically grew up in it and feel like the world outside is kinda boring." The redhead nodded thoughtfully.

"Claudia?" Myka asked in a serious tone of voice.

"Yes, momma bear?"

"Please let Sarah tell her story." The older woman stated. "It's not a story about her life choices. It's about what's happening and how everybody ended up here."

"Acknowledged." Claudia lowered her gaze to the ground.

Sarah sighed deeply before she started talking again.

"So, one day I was going into my room on campus and there was already someone waiting for me. This will sound strange, but it was a girl that looked exactly like me and told me she is myself from the future. Three weeks into the future, to be exact. She was seriously injured on her shoulder. There was blood everywhere."

"From some event that killed me?" Myka asked, figuring some things out.

"More or less." Sarah shrugged.

____________________________________________

_Sarah looked at the bleeding and panting woman in front of her. She really looked like she needed help. At first they had to get her into a hospital. Sarah was so used to strange stuff happening around her that the fact a woman that looked exactly like her just had showed up in her room didn't bother her at all._

_"We have to do something about your shoulder!" The girl yelled worriedly. "You're losing a lot of blood!"_

_"There isn't enough time." The doppelgänger replied quickly. "I have to give you all the information now."_

_"It could give us a lot more time if you'd let me you help you with that shoulder." Sarah didn't wait to hear any more. She searched through her drawers for her medical kit before approaching the other woman to help her remove her jacket. "Lie down on the bed." She demanded._

_The woman did as she was told, allowing Sarah to cut her pullover off with scissors._

_"What caused this injury?" She asked interestedly while working._

_"A big and broken wooden plank." The woman hissed in pain._

_"Ouch." Sarah scrunched her noses. She managed to stop the bleeding with a pressure bandage but it was clear that the girl was seriously injured. The actual injury probably wasn't even lethal, but the infection that came with it would kill the girl if she refused to be taken to the hospital. There had to be a good reason for this._

_"Okay." Sarah said, sitting down on the bed next to her other self. "Which artifact and why?"_

_"No artifact." The other woman panted._

_Sarah raised an eyebrow._

_"Okay, there is an artifact." The other girl admitted._

_"So, was I cloned by an artifact?" Sarah asked with her eyebrows furrowed._

_"I'm not your clone." Her doppelgänger replied._

_"Thank goodness. Cloning would have been some kind of trip."_

___________________________________

"She told me that my mother," Sarah nodded in Myka's direction while talking, "would die. Due to an accident in the Warehouse. There was an intruder at the Warehouse that caused this accident. The Warehouse reacted to this intruder like it reacted to no one before. It was completely strange and unreal-"

"How do you know what it was like?" Pete interjected.

"I've witnessed it." Sarah answered genuinely. "After I tested how the artifact," She pointed at the watch on the table, "worked, I travelled to the future myself and tried to undo that accident, because the other Sarah was so injured she couldn't do it herself anymore. That's why she asked me. The problem was that she tried it already rather often - we lost count. Nothing she tried worked. The outcome was always the same: On the day Sarah came home from college and intruder showed up in the Warehouse. Sarah started following this person, but was unable to find her. The Warehouse reacted to the intruder and to Sarah following her, flashes and lightening were everywhere, they even hit me when I was there..." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Because I've always been rather stubborn and sometimes maybe even naive Sarah's mothers followed her, afraid something could happen to her. You have to know that I got 'lost' several times in the Warehouse when I was a child. That you two followed me was only natural." Sarah looked at Helena and Myka and smiled shyly. Helena was very calm while listening to the story. Her face showed emotions of pain and confusion. Sarah could feel her heart break while looking at her face. The Helena she knew wasn't like this. Myka however looked interested although exhausted. Sarah's eyes met Myka's shoulder, causing the girl to frown.

"I'm sorry about that. So very sorry."

"About what?" Myka asked, apparently confused.

"Your shoulder. I never intended to do that. When you chased me, I panicked. So I defended myself. Good thing that I took all those fire practicing you two forced me into." Sarah's smile was desperate. Pete stepped forwards.

"Are you crazy?" He asked, looking down at her.

"You have no idea, Pete." Sarah said with an empty face. The shadows around her eyes went darker. Sarah blinked forcefully.

"Do you remember the part of the Warehouse where we store the big artifact?. And by big I mean those boxes that are big enough for elephants and trucks?" She suggested.

Myka, Claudia and Pete nodded in unison.

"Some of the shelves storing these boxes are really old and brittle." Sarah mentioned thoughtfully. "It just takes a small earth shake and they would fall over."

With tears in her eyes, Sarah looked at Myka.

"The Warehouse's reaction to the intruder was streaks of lightening and eruptions." Myka concluded. "And one of those shelves broke down."

"Do you know what our family has been through?" Sarah asked. "Everything that happened. There was a lot that almost got us killed. And then... a shelf. A freaking shelf. It's so ridiculous." Tears were now openly running down her cheeks. Myka shifted in bed as though she would stand up to take her daughter into her arms. But then she didn't move at all.

"The older Sarah told me that Helena went crazy after that day." Sarah sighed deeply. "Losing a child, healing from that wound, but then losing your wife in a stupid accident? H.G. Wells stopped talking that day. Her mind was completely empty. The older Sarah had to take care for her and her brother. I mean the rest of the family tried-"

"Brother?" Pete asked and shared a look with Claudia.

Myka give him a look. She slowly shook her head while Helena's eyes widened. The Victorian looked at the curly-haired woman, her face almost angry.

"A son, too?" She asked indignantly.

Myka massaged the spot between her eyes, shutting her eyes briefly to apparently gather herself. "It's hard to explain, Helena. I promise I will sit down with you and tell you everything you want to know. But we will do that later. But can we please just take time for this?"

"The combined grief of Helena and my older-self created an artifact that day." Sarah continued, ignoring their discussion. "I have a wristwatch and now it's over there on the table. It allows us to travel through time. Well at first, we thought that was everything about it. The older Sarah travelled several times to the day her mother died. She tried so hard to undo the accident. At first she chased the intruder. But it was like he appeared and disappeared at different places in the Warehouse. She described it as horrible. Then she tried to calm the Warehouse down."

Myka raised an eyebrow, causing Sarah to wring her hands and lowering her gaze to the ground.

"You must have already noticed that there is something special between the Warehouse and your daughter." Sarah explained, fighting for words. "We have a special connection. The Warehouse was involved in my creation and it's somehow a third parent to me."

Claudia rubbed her chin. "Involved in your creation?" She asked. "Does that mean you're like literally the daughter of HG and Myka?" Her eyes wandered from HG - who now let her tears run freely - to Myka, finally settling on Sarah. "Oh. Now all of it makes sense to me. It's like you are looking into HG's face, but with Myka's eyes and curls."

Sarah stared for a moment at Claudia.

"Well, her attempts didn't work either." The girl continued, feeling slightly annoyed by all the interruptions. "At some point, the injury happened. The older Sarah was hit by some debris from another shelf breaking down, too. It wasn't lethal. But when she showed me, I could tell that the infection along with the blood loss would kill her. She realised that she couldn't go on with her attempts." She paused briefly to catch her breath.

"So she visited me."


	16. Chapter 16

Sarah's Story - Part 4

"That's the point I come into this story." Sarah continued. "The older Sarah spent her time dying on my bed while I figured out - with her help - how the watch worked." She sighed. "There are several down sides. For example: The missing days. It's not happening in the Warehouse and I have no explanation why. You can travel from the Warehouse to other places or from these other places to the Warehouse and nothing happens. But if you travel from one place - that's not the Warehouse - to another, it steals time. From the people at the place you are visiting. It's awful. I can't remember how often I travelled to the Warehouse. I tried my best. I even started talking to Sarah there or to Myka and Helena. I flooded the whole Warehouse with goo. I talked to the Warehouse, I tried to repair the shelf and almost got myself killed when it hit Myka. Nothing helped, goddammit!" The girl was getting louder by the minute. "It was like I was cursed to watch my mother die over and over again. And again. And again. You can't imagine how much that hurts." Sarah made no attempt to hide her tears.

Helena cleared her throat, but she looked like she was trapped in her own thoughts. Myka knew that Helena knew exactly what it was to be like to see a beloved one die again and again.

"That was when we started to try something different. I had taken notes on all of my attempts." Sarah looked at Helena. "On the behaviour of the watch, myself, everything I could witness in the Warehouse. We decided to follow another path. That was when I travelled to 2023."

"Why?" Myka asked with her eyebrows furrowed. "I mean... why exactly that date?"

The girl nodded thoughtfully while looking down to the ground. "Our intention was to ask the other time traveller in our life for advice. When we pondered to which particular time I would go - to ask for help - Sarah mentioned she had memory of me showing up in the B&B when she was five. I remember that, too."

"Why would you show up in your own life when you were five?" Myka asked, confused. "That makes no sense to me."

Her daughter snorthed. "Yeah, that's the freaky part. Okay, that's one of the many freaky parts about this. The older Sarah found the original watch in the Warehouse. It fell out of a shelf, it was like the Warehouse gave it to her to help her undo the accident. But that was _after_ her own watch turned into an artifact. And still they were the same. The watch Sarah found wasn't an artifact, yet. So how could we wear a watch our whole life when we found it years later in the Warehouse?"

Pete rubbed his forehead. "I'm definitely gonna get brain cancer if I go on thinking about this."

"That's an easy one." Claudia shrugged. "Grown up kid found watch in,... how old are you?"

"Twenty." Sarah responded, bowing her head.

"Twenty year old kid found not-artifact-watch in 2038, went back to 2023 with the help of the artifact she just created, gave five year old kid not-artifact-watch, five year old kid wore not-artifact-watch whole life, created artifact when she was twenty, found watch again, remembered twenty year old kid showing up when she was five, travelled back to 2023 to give kid watch. It's a loop." Claudia explained, being out of breath afterwards.

"Yeah, sounds totally easy to me." Pete laughed nervously.

"I wanted to combine the delivery of the original watch with an ask for the advice from Helena." Sarah continued. "But I messed the last part up. The problem with the missing days showed up. As I said: There's no problem if the travel is somehow related to the Warehouse. But that day I showed up in Univille, the watch stole all the time it needed from the city. A whole 24 hour day was missing. Well, the people there thought it was missing, when in fact, time in Univille just stopped for everyone. Except for me. This is the strangest part." Sarah blinked for a few times while she paused, looking like she was in slight pain. "I was able to walk through the city. I was able to watch everything, to visit places, but 'time stopped' means time stopped. The sun didn't rise or set, it was dark all the time. Everything was immobile. I couldn't go into houses because the doors didn't work. It was incredibly cold. I couln't find a place to sleep. This whole thing was exhausting and frustrating. I was afraid and alone and didn't know if this would ever stop. Oh, and when time was working again, Helena was rather uncooperative. She threatened me." The girl's eyes darted briefly to the Victorian. "Well, maybe I shouldn't have just showed up next to her daughter. You know, I tried to give five year old Sarah the watch without anybody noticing. But she almost caught me in the act, felt threatened and then tried to fight me. We had a really strange argument in the backyard of the B&B, where she told me to bring _her_ Myka back. I didn't understand what she was saying at all back then. But then I decided to leave her and try my best with another Helena from another time. Before that, I went back home to my time where the older Sarah was still dying on my bed. You have to know that there wasn't much time passing while I was absent. During my travel to 2023 she fell asleep and had a weird dream."

"That one she shared with us?" Myka asked and Sarah nodded.

______________________________________

_"What's going on?" Sarah asked worriedly, sitting down on the edge of the bed. She put her hand on her older version's forehead. "Oh no. You are almost burning up! You have fever."_

_The older Sarah was obviously struggling to breathe. "I had a very strange dream." She started caughing after finishing her sentence._

_Sarah carefully brushed a curl out of the other woman's face while looking fondly at her. During the time they had worked together she had had a lot of arguments with her older self, because Sarah wasn't willing to act carelessly in this mission. Before she had started travelling through time with the help of the watch, she had tried it out to find out how it was exactly working. She had written everything down she had found out, while her older self was annoyed by this behaviour. "You're wasting time." The older Sarah had often yelled. "You have to act now, while I'm still alive so I can help you with this. You are annoying. Do you know that? You think you know everything better."_

_Sarah had always rolled her eyes in reaction. "I'm not willing to work with a strange artifact without knowing what this could mean to me, okay? I mean, my eyeballs could fall out, or I could age suddenly very fast. Also I want to see how everything here is connected. It could be important. I understand that you want this undone as fast as possible but acting without thinking doesn't help."_

_The two girls had annoyed each other more than they had actually been able to help each other, but now that Sarah saw all the fear in her older version's face - and realised she would die - she felt sorry for this gil. Then, she thought about the possibility that she could end up like her as well. She could die. She had seen their mother die several times during the incident she tried to undo so desperately. And it had broken her heart. Looking into the face of her older self - who was inevitably dying - crushed it completely._

_"What kind of dream?" Sarah forced out with a sadness in her voice that surprised herself._

_"I was in a dark place and heard mother talk." The older Sarah began, her voice less than a whisper. "But...she talked to herself. Literally. There were two Mykas, an older one and a younger one. They both had a version of our artifact and talked about time travel. It was like they were aware of us...I yelled at them. Because I wanted to know why they were there and I was frustrated that this wasn't working at all."_

___________________________________________

"Her dream in combination with Helena's statement to bring Myka back through time somehow told me that my time travel had an effect on you, too." Sarah explained slowly. "But I couldn't tell in which way."

"That was what you told me, when you kidnapped me." Helena suddenly mentioned. They looked at her in surprise.

Helena's face showed that she'd just figured some things out.

"Yes. I'm pretty sorry about the kidnapping." Sarah pursed her lips. "That wasn't planned. I met this very aggressive Helena in the future, who was more than mad at me because she thought I was threatening her daughter. She had threatened me with a gun and I was able to defend myself from her. But well, for some reason, I took her gun with me through time. This might have been the worst decision in this whole story. Because actually I own a Tesla. And I cannot understand why I didn't use it instead." She pointed at the Tesla that lay next to her watch on the table.

"The older Sarah and I decided that it was better to visit a Helena in a time where she wouldn't threaten me so easily." The girl shrugged. "The only logical time for the older Sarah was Boone in 2013. Because we didn't exist back at this time and Myka was also not anywhere near you in this time." She looked carefully at HG. "And if we could manage it perfectly, I could complete our mission and ask our time traveller relative without getting recognised. If I could make that decision again, I would maybe show up back in the 19th century when you built your time machine. I mean you were rather a lot on time travel back in that time, but somehow we didn't make this decision."

Helena smirked. She looked a lot better while listening to the time travel aspect of Sarah's story. The thrill of solving a puzzle helped Helena to ignore her pain, Myka could tell.

"I don't know if I would have been any less threatening back then, child." The Victorian smiled weakly.

"I felt incredibly nervous when I showed up at your place." Sarah told her. "The time stopped again for a whole day - but this time I used it to plan my further steps. I brought all my notes and took others to plan the communication with you. I looked for an empty house in the city. And I found a car that I could rent when time was running again. Oh, I started wearing those shades so I wouldn't be recognised by anybody. Interesting you immediately wiped them off my face and left this nice cut."

"Sorry for that." Helena pursed her lips.

"Well, I attacked you. I threatened you with a gun." Sarah shook her head, shrugging. "I think you just reacted the way we would all have reacted to that.

"But I couldn't really help you with your problem." HG sounded pitiful.

"And sadly we were interrupted by you showing up." Sarah looked at Myka. "Like I said. I'm very sorry for the shooting. But I hadn't slept in two or three days. I can't really tell because I don't know how much time I have spent on trying to rescue my mother in the Warehouse."

Peter chuckled a little. "Are you trying to tell me you weren't able anymore to decide not to shoot your own mother but you were able to aim that good?"

"Oh, uncle Pete, shut up." For a brief moment, Sarah grinned mischievously at him. "I'm really good at aiming. You helped me with the fire practice."

"Oh!" Pete said. "That explains a lot of course. If you learned shooting with me..."

"Shut up." Sarah winked at him.

"Okay." Myka's partner looked again like he didn't know what to think of the girl.

Who took another steadying breath before continuing: "After I left you in the aisle, I managed to get back to my time again. The older Sarah was near death and I was exhausted and couldn't think straight anymore, so we made the fast decision to come back to this place again."

"That's why we missed another day?" Pete asked interestedly.

"If you ask me, these missing days are the worst downside of this artifact in general." Claudia stated in an annoyed tone of voice. "I mean, it really doesn't make any sense. The artifact steals time when you come to our time, but not when you go back to your time. Also it doesn't steal time when you go to the Warehouse or come from the Warehouse. This really sounds to me like the whole artifact just made this up to get the attention of Warehouse agents."

They all nodded and looked down towards the ground, each deep in thought

"I didn't even intend to steal another day from Boone." Sarah mentioned.

"Hm?" The redhead looked at her in obvious surprise.

"While exploring the watch I realised you could steal time from certain people." The dark-haired girl explained. "But then you literally take it from them and their life gets shorter."

"I don't even want to know how you figured that out." Claudia grunted loudly.

"When I came back again, I took time from the older Sarah. I mean, she was almost dead already and told me to do it. I... I looked into her eyes when she died. It was awful. And all of it, for nothing." Sarah stopped and lowered her head. "Obviously, her time wasn't enough and Boone is missing almost a whole day again and I had to spend a whole day on my own. I can't sleep during those times. I can't explain it. I'm just so tired." She rested her forehead on her hands.

There was an awkward silence until Myka decided to get into the topic of her time travel again.: "When did you realise that I'm here from the future?"

"Oh, this was somehow a combination of that mentioned dream, Helena's statement in the future and your behaviour when you 'rescued' Helena from me." Her daughter looked at her. "You did recognise me, didn't you? Somehow I brought you here from the future, right?"

"Well, that's a part I can enlighten you about." Myka offered her a smile. "You didn't only bring me here from the future. We literally swapped places, the Myka from this time and me."

Sarah looked at her for a very long time. "Oh." She finally said. "This makes sense in a warped way. But I don't understand why."  


Claudia nodded. "As far as I understand, this seems to be another down side of the artifact. Your desire to rescue Myka somehow dragged her through time, like you have her hanging by a thread or something."

"'Time travel is a physical impossibility.'" Sarah quoted. "Helena G. Wells and Arthur Nielsen. I was wondering if we could have made it possible. But step by step, seeing all the downsides of the artifact, it frightens me. And all that for nothing. It doesn't work."

"There is another effect." Myka said. "You told me my behaviour in the aisle showed you that I recognised you, but that's not true. I didn't recognise you."

"Why did you act so strange, then?" Sarah asked.

"The watch has an effect on me." The curly-haired woman replied. "I can feel it all the time it's near me. I can feel it right now. It's like a big urge to be with you and to touch the watch. This might be the reason I touched the watch in my future. And why the Myka from this time touched the watch back then."

"Wait. You have watches, too? What does that mean?" Sarah asked, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Your watch exists without time, Sarah. It shows up in several times. It was in the Warehouse in 2013 and it was in the Warehouse in 2023. I can't explain this." Myka shook her head slightly, pondering this again.

Sarah looked confused. "Who would have put these watches in the Warehouse?"

"No, you don't understand." Helena stated, shaking her head profusely. "The question is 'When was the watch put in the Warehouse?' Because I can imagine that it was put at some point in history there. And then it showed up by itself in those other times."

"Okay, is that all?" Pete asked, interrupting the brief silence they shared, thinking about the Victorian's statement. "We now know how we came here! I think I really need coffee and something to eat. And Claudia looks like she could need something like this, too. My brain hurts exactly as much as my back. I mean look at you talking about time travel. All three of you sound insane. Perfect little insane family from three different ... time zones or whatever. I'm going to get coffee. Claudia is helping me and you three can go on talking your crazy talk and figure out how to 'undo it'. I hope you're successful." He huffed. "Claudia? Come on! Coffee! And afterwards we visit the city's border to look if we can help there. I've heard there is a mass panic, because of missing days." He angrily looked at Sarah and walked out of the hotel room.

Claudia jumped up to follow him. "I know he said a lot between the words 'I need coffee' and 'Claudia. Come on! Coffee!' But that's all I heard. See you later, folks."

She closed the door behind them. Myka, Helena and Sarah exchanged worried looks. Myka knew that Pete was in conflict. Somehow he wanted to hate Sarah for everything that happened. Especially for shooting Myka. He thought the whole situation was her fault. But he also liked the girl, Myka could tell. Maybe it was better for him to go outside and clear his head.


	17. Chapter 17

2023

Feeling confused, Artie watched Myka behaving extremely nervous. She was chewing on her bottom lip, her hands shaking. Shooting a worried glimpse towards her pulse point, he noticed it throbbing brutally. Her heart seemed to be racing, Artie was concerned. He was afraid that this current state could harm her baby. Myka and the old agent, from two opposite sides, were currently engaged at ripping away the purple neutralisation bag. Helena was standing right next to them. She seemed to be unsure about what to do.

"What do you mean by 'Give me the watch or I will hit you until you give it to me', Myka?" Artie asked. Maybe he could calm her down with his voice. She was definitely under the influence of this artifact. Artie was frightened.

"Pl-...Please Artie. Just give me the artifact. It's important." Myka's voice trembled.

"I can see that you are under its influence. I can't tell if it's a good decision to give it to you." Artie replied, ripping at the bag with all his strength. But of course he couldn't really compete Myka. "Look what happened the last time you had the urge to touch this watch-"

"Oh for the love of god, Artie!" HG ranted annoyedly. "Just give her the bloody watch. It's true we don't know what will happen. But have you considered the possibility that it might be something positive? Maybe something happened in the past that allows Myka to swap places again? Maybe _our_ Myka would come back."

"What makes you so sure?" Artie asked, pulling again forcefully at the bag.

"Artie, look at her." Helena looked at him with her eyes widening. "Do you want to go on watching her suffer this way or do you maybe want to help her?"

"HG!" Artie ranted.

"Artie!" Helena ranted back, equally emphatic.

"Please." Myka mumbled. "Just please."

Artie looked deeply into Myka's eyes. He saw the desperation in them. He saw the pain lurking in the green orbs. He didn't want her to be in pain, so he let go off the bag. Myka pressed it tightly to her chest, while stumbling backwards.

She opened the bag and was about to put her hand into it when she glanced back up at Helena. From all that Artie could see Myka fought the urge to touch the artifact and walked over to the older woman to take her into her arms. Artie raised an eyebrow, unsure about what to do.

"I'm not sure what will happen now, and I'm not sure if we will ever meet again, so I wanted to thank you." Myka whispered into the other woman's ear.

Helena's genuine smile was fraught with confusion as she watched Myka pull away. "Thank me? For what? I don't think much happened on our side of the time travel. The scar showed us that all the fighting is on the other side."

Myka looked at her with a serious facial expression. "Helena, you know what I mean. I'm glad you told me about all this." She moved her arms around them vaguely. "And that we share our little endless wonder together. I'm sure that I want this." She sighed quietly as she awkwardly placed a hand on her stomach. Then she looked up with her eyebrows furrowed. "Or more... I want 'us' to happen. It's still very confusing but it doesn't hurt anymore."

Artie watched Helena swallowing and nodding. "I'm glad you said this, Myka." She stated. "I'm really glad."

Now, the male agent stared at the ceiling, hoping for their annoyingly romantic behaviour to stop.

With one last look at Helena, Myka put her hand into the bag and pulled out the watch.

Helena caught her as she fell.

"Artie." She yelled in panic, causing him to wake up from his day dream. "Can you help me with her?. She is pretty heavy."

Together they carried Myka to the couch , putting her on it with a pillow to support her neck. With her left hand, Myka clutched the watch tightly and pressed it to her chest. Her eyes were moving under her eyelids - utterly fast, like she was dreaming. Helena sat down on the floor next to the couch, placed her head and her arms on its edge and stared at her beloved wife in concern. Meanwhile, Artie took seat in the armchair in the room, unsure about what to do and feeling incredibly worried.

________________________________________

2013

Rolling her eyes intensely, Helena spoke to Nate via phone. She was standing in the hotel's hallway with her back to the closed door of Myka's room. "Yes, Nate, I'm completely aware of the fact that I haven't been home since I was kidnapped..." She stated with a sigh. "Of course I want to come home to you and Adelaide... yes, _yes_ , I do find this situation of missing two days frightening myself... I told you that the government is currently working on figuring what's causing it and that they need my help..." She looked at her socks and noted for the first time since being rescued that they were very dirty. She seemed to have forgotten the fact that she still wasn't wearing any shoes.

"Could you find a way to say this anymore sarcastically?" The Victorian growled. "Yes, this has something to do with my mysterious past and it is hard to explain to you... Ask Adelaide if you want any more details, please... I'm just informing you that I won't come home today. I think we both agree that this event is exceptional and that I normally don't behave like this." She paused to allow Nate to vent his confusion and anger at their present predicament. "Yes, Nate, except for my mysterious past. I promise, everything will come back to normal when we are done here..." Wishful thinking on her part. "Yes, that would make me happy. Please give Adelaide a hug from me. See you then." She hung up and sighed before turning and walking back into the hotel room.

Myka, Sarah and Helena had been alone for a few hours now. Sarah had finally fallen asleep on the hotel bed shortly after Claudia and Pete left. She looked relaxed and peaceful now. Helena had noticed it, feeling relieved. The Victorian had spent time with Sarah's notes. Everything she read in connection to the accident only served to confuse her further. She couldn't figure out who this mysterious person was that showed up in the Warehouse every single time. Not one of Sarah's notes gave her any clear information about this. She didn't want to ask Sarah herself. That girl could be lucky to get some sleep.

There was only one logical conclusion that Helena had drawn from it all and it didn't make her very happy.

After Helena had entered the room and closed the door behind her, Myka stepped out of the bath room with her hair wet, wearing clean clothes.

"Wow." The American said with forced levity in her voice. "I just got reminded that showering with a shooting wound is more annoying than showering when one's heavily pregnant."

"Reminded?" Helena asked, genuinely interested.

"Ah, it's not my first shooting wound. Well, chronological this is the first shooting wound to my body." Myka narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "But... I got shot once in the future. But let's not talk about this. I'm alive and everything is alright." She smiled carefully at the Victorian. "Do you mind helping me with the sling again?"

Helena put the phone on the desk and walked over to the other woman. She took the sling out of Myka's hand and pulled it over the agent's head carefully, helping Myka to put her arm in.

The agent looked the older woman in concern while the Victorian pinned her view at anything but Myka.

"Are you alright?" The American asked carefully, causing Helena to sigh.

"I feel caught..." The writer stated. "Yes, I think that's the right word. I have always thought myself alone with my feelings. Myka almost sent me away the day she told me to fight for Nate. I realised there was something about her but she told me... you told me that it was only the fear of losing a friend. I buried my love and the feelings for her that day to stay with Nate and I believed that it was the right thing to do." Helena's eyes darted briefly to Myka's face. "And for this short time, it felt good and uncomplicated. But now I think it's unfair that she couldn't hear it from me. You say she swapped bodies with you, so she sees a future with me that I'm in a way not part of. I would be glad to have a future with her but I also don't feel ready for this. It is so difficult." HG raked a hand through her hair.

Myka nodded understandingly and didn't say anything. The Victorian appreciated it. After a short while, the American sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed. She watched over Sarah who slept on peacefully.

"She has been through so much." Myka said after a while.

"I hope we can help her." Helena whispered back, in earnest.

The younger woman looked at her with one eyebrow raised.

"Oh, don't look at me like that." The Victorian growled. "I might have problems processing all this information and I might not be ready to become a happy family with Myka Bering but this is in a very warped way my daughter and I truly want to help her." She turned around to walk over to the desk where she sat down to re-read Sarah's notes for what seemed like the hundredth time...

________________________________________________

While Helena worked on Sarah's notes, Myka rested her head against the headboard, closing her eyes. She enjoyed being with her wife and her daughter although this was... how had Helena put it? Although this was a very warped way to be with them. Here they were: Her wife from the past who didn't remember being her wife because the life they shared hadn't happened yet. And then there was their daughter from the future who knew far more about them than they did themselves. And who also tried to change their future because it had literally gone the wrong way.

"What is it like?" Helena asked, pulling Myka out of her reverie.

"Hmm?" The American opened her eyes to look at the other woman.

"Our... _your_ future? I really don't want to sound curious. Maybe I am. You can't tell me it's wrong that I am curious." The inventor scribbled over a paper with a pencil, apparently avoiding to look at Myka directly.

"Nothing is wrong with being curious, Helena." Myka smiled briefly before letting out a sigh."Well, I have to admit that this whole situation is more than a little messed up and giving you information - about us - couldn't really mess up anything further?" She shook her head, looking at her own feet.

"It's wonderful." Myka sighed. "We have our own small house near the B&B with our own endless wonder in it. Sarah is growing so fast. In the last months, she often played between the trees in our backyard. You built her a small tree house last year and she is really happy with it, but she doesn't allow us to come in. Maybe she is a little mad at us because we never allow her to walk through the Warehouse alone."

Helena chuckled quietly but went on scribbling.

"We have a son?" She asked without looking at Myka.

"You mean that Sarah gave you completely new information about that?" Now, Helena finally looked at the other woman.

"No." The agent shook her head. "Actually, I'm pregnant." She shifted a little on the bed and frowned."This time travel feels a little like a vacation from my current pregnant body. But now that I got shot waddling around with a big baby bump seems much more attractive to me."

She grinned, shrugging. Helena lowered her eyes to the ground.

"Okay." Myka pursed her lips. "And now I will stop talking about the future."

"Why?" Helena asked with a facial expression Myka wasn't really able to interpret. She looked happier than the younger woman expected her to look.

"Oh, I have the feeling to make you uncomfortable."

"No." Helena shook her head. "I just imagined you with a baby bump and I had to suppress my laughter."

Myka laughed out loud. "I have to suppress my urge to throw my pillow at you!"

H.G. joined in her laughter causing Sarah to groan in her sleep.

"Shhhh, darling. The children are sleeping!" Helena gasped for breath. Myka smiled fondly at her, noticing the excited glisten in the Victorian's eyes.

After they had calmed down, the inventor bent over Sarah's notes again.

Myka decided to keep herself busy, so she leaned over to the nightstand and grabbed the neutralisation bag she had placed there. She opened it and pulled out the watch.

"Myka, what are you doing?" Helena asked, watching the other woman from the corner of her eye. "At least put on some gloves."

"I've touched it several times now and nothing happened, Helena." Carefully, Myka turned the artifact in her hands, surveying it thoroughly "Ah, there is the message everybody was talking about. Maybe we should write them something back. Like 'Working on a solution, unable to find a way. Sarah is safe.'" She snorted while Helena leaned over her desk again.

"How is it going?" Myka asked.

Helena's face changed immediately to a concerned one. She shook her head, putting her pencil down forcefully. "Everything I'm reading leads me more and more to a conclusion I don't want to have. It's horrifying, Myka. There is absolutely no real information about the intruder Sarah mentioned. She was able to see them a few times vaguely, but her descriptions just seem to confirm my suspicions."

"And what are your suspicions?" The American furrowed her eyebrows.

Helena's gaze wandered to the girl on the bed. She slowly shook her head.

"The girl is travelling through time, Myka. She came back several times to the moment her mother died. She probably showed up at different places. Sarah described the intruder as unpredictable showing up at various places. It makes sense if you see it from my point of view, Myka. It's the only conclusion that makes sense."

"What are you trying to say?" Myka's voice was shaking now. She could guess what Helena was hinting at. But she was afraid of what this could mean.

"There never was an intruder in the Warehouse and there will never be." The Victorian pursed her lips. "It was Sarah all the time. She showed up in the Warehouse, looking for a way to rescue her mother but causing the accident that killed her mother. There is no other explanation. That's why the Warehouse reacted this intensely like she described it in her notes. It recognised her and was aware of what she was doing, trying to stop her."

"Helena, are you sure of what you are saying?" The curly-haired woman looked at HG in horror.

"Unfortunately, I am. I highly doubt that the Warehouse gave Sarah that watch on purpose. Maybe this wasn't planned." Helena frowned, looking down at the notes again.

"I can't believe it." When Myka looked at her daughter, she realised that the girl was now lying with her eyes open. _No._ She thought. _Not now._

"You have to believe it, because there is no other explanation." Helena continued, apparently oblivious of the fact that Sarah was awake and listening.

"Stop!" Myka quietly begged.

"Sarah has killed her mother by mistake." HG concluded.

"NO!" Sarah's voice was loud, desperate and filled with anger. She quickly sat up, looking at the Victorian and then jumped from the bed. Myka rose from the bed to get into her way.

"You're lying!" Sarah yelled, heading towards the table on which the artifact was currently sat. "I can prove it. You're lying. It can't be true." Myka grabbed her arm to hold the girl back. Still holding her watch, the agent reached forward and wrapped an arm around Sarah's waist. She felt the pain inside her shoulder when her daughter reached out her hand for the artifact. The girl picked it up from the table, pulling out the watches crown with a single movement of her thumb. Looking mesmerised, Helena stared into Myka's eyes. And the younger woman suddenly had the feeling to know what had to happen. She looked at the watch she held clutched tightly in her hand. 

_________________________________________

When her daughter pressed her thumb on the crown again and disappeared, Myka collapsed to the ground, completely limp. Her eyes slowly closed. Helena jumped up from her chair to catch her. She went down to her knees, holding the other woman in her arms.

Gently, Helena shook her.

"Myka?" She asked worriedly but the agent didn't reply. Instead she clutched the watch tightly with her hand. Her eyes moved under her eyelids like she was dreaming. The inventor pressed her to her chest, rocking her gently. Suddenly, the door opened and Pete and Claudia walked in.

"Coffee for everyone!" Claudia announced cheerfully.

"Mykes!" Pete shouted as soon as he had caught sight of them. He crossed the room quickly to kneel beside them. "What happened?" He looked around the room. Noticing the absent figure, he asked angrily: "And where the hell is Sarah?"


	18. Chapter 18

_Confused, Sarah stared at the two Mykas in front of her: One looked older than the other. The girl pressed the wrist watch she was holding closer to her chest, blinking a few times. Everything seemed clearer now. Her fatigue had somehow completely left her, although she couldn't explain it all yet. The room around her was dark and a strange light was emanating from the bodies of the three women. Was this the dream the other Sarah had talked about? Was she now sharing a dream with the younger and the older Myka? Sarah felt utterly confused. And for some reasons, she had the distinct feeling to know things that had happened in the past and things that could happen in the future. This felt strange and she couldn't explain it at all._

_Sarah frowned while she watched the pictures in her head. Helena was sacrificing herself to save Myka. There was a bomb exploding._

_Artie turned back time with the astrolabe. Everything that had happened the day Walter Skype blew up the Warehouse was undone. Sarah's eyes widened. This would have been another way._

_Now, Sarah saw the day her mother died in the Warehouse. An intruder had appeared. Sarah's mind was now free of doubt and fear. She just went through all the memories she possed now. It was like she was able to ask time itself about the incident._

_The intruder Sarah had seen in the Warehouse again and again, it had only been the girl herself. She became aware of this, feeling shocked._

_"It was me." She said looking at her mothers._

_The younger Myka looked confused. She was clearly lacking information to understand Sarah's statement. The older Myka nodded. Tears were forming in her eyes._

_"It was me." Sarah repeated breathlessly, looking around like she was looking for further evidence to support or deny her statement. "I showed up in the Warehouse and made the older Sarah follow me. This hasn't been my intention." Sarah shook her head anxiously, trying to blink away her tears._

_"It wasn't your fault, Sarah." The older Myka tried to comfort the girl, while the younger Myka looked like she was trying really hard to combine all the pieces of this puzzle of information in front of her. "You didn't know this. You weren't aware that what you did caused the Warehouse to behave this way. Sarah look at me." The girl's head snapped up. Sarah felt desolate as she met her mother's eyes. The older version of Myka showed her a weak but genuine smile. "It was a terrible terrible accident, caused by too many events in combination. And you were completely unaware of them." Slowly, the woman approached her daughter, opening her arms. "It wasn't your fault, Sarah." She repeated. Sarah swallowed hard, shivering. She struggled with her need to be held by her beloved ones. But then, the girl fell into her mother's arms with such a force that they both went down to their knees. Gently rocking her child and stroking her curls, the older Myka whispered into her ear. And Sarah felt finally free to cry, her whole body shaking under the release of her emotions._

_"Everything is alright, my child. We will fix this." The older Myka whispered, her voice shaking. Sarah didn't really listen. She didn't see that the older Myka exchanged a worried look with the younger Myka who awkwardly stood next to them, not knowing what she was expected to do or say._

_"How?" The younger Myka asked, sounding helpless._

_"Hm?" Her future self looked up at her._

_"How do you want to fix this? I mean... Sarah... she is travelling through time and wasn't able to do it. How do you want to do it?" The younger woman shrugged._

_The older Myka pursed her lips. "You don't understand. This is not the Sarah that witnessed the accident which killed us in the future. She caused it but she is from another point in time."_

_"I don't understand anything at all." The younger Myka replied, confusion evident in her voice._

_The older agent stared silently at her daughter's hair, apparently thinking. Then, she shook her head. "Maybe it isn't important that you understand everything, Myka. But I think we can find a way to undo it."_

_At those words, Sarah looked up at her, snuffling._

_"How?" She asked, her voice still trembling, but with a genuine interest._

_"Everything that has happened was caused by the watch, Sarah." The woman who was holding her replied. "The whole accident was caused by the watch."_

_"The Warehouse would never give me an artifact that would cause my mother's death." Sarah responded indignantly._

_"Maybe it didn't want to give you the artifact?" Her mother shrugged. "Maybe this was a coincidence? Sarah, listen. You have to destroy the watch."_

_"What?" Sarah asked, shocked._

_"Look at what happened. Look at you." The older Myka gently brushed a curl out of the girls face. "The watch had an impact on your life, it hurt you. It didn't cause anything positive except for the fact that you were able to time travel. It's a loop, Sarah. You found the watch to rescue your mother - but by using it you killed her. Destroy the watch and hopefully, you will undo what happened to your mother."_

_"But, what if the accident happens even though the watch is destroyed?" Sarah interjected, doubt evident in her voice._

_The older woman sighed deeply. "Sarah, your future isn't written, yet. The accident hasn't happened for you, yet. You know what will happen and when it will happen. Just stay away. The accident happened because your mother followed you. And if you aren't there..." Myka seemed to force out a smile._

_The younger Myka sat down next to them. "We are writing our futures ourselves, Sarah. You are living in the past of the point time in which the accident happened. It doesn't have to be your future. I finally understand... I'm your past,"she looked tentatively at the two and drew a shaky breath, "but you don't have to be my future if I decide against it. I won't do that, we three know it. But you, Sarah, can change your future on your own. Trust me."_

_The girl looked at both women, trying to think._

_"Destroy the watch." She mumbled. "Who would have known that this would be so easy?"_

_The older Myka pursed her lips, her face sad but full of compassion. "I'm so sorry for everything that has happened to you. No one can give you this time back."_

_The younger Myka's eyes widened. "Not if you understand what destroying the watch really means. It will literally undo everything. I won't travel to your time and you won't travel to my time. Maybe we'll forget everything …everything we've witnessed. Maybe the story will repeat again. Or maybe we will forget everything but we will be able to rescue your mother."_

_Regarding the younger Myka's face thoroughly, Sarah could tell she was in conflict. It seemed to be important for her to remember the time travel._

_"You're afraid that you will forget everything you've seen in your future." Sarah noted, swallowing thickly._

_The younger Myka closed her eyes, apparently feeling caught, but then she shook her head. She looked fondly at the girl. "I'm willing to pay this price to rescue our mutual future."_

_"Maybe," Sarah smiled. "we just have to seize the moment."_

_"What do you mean?" Myka asked but Sarah held up the watch and looked from the younger to the older Myka and back._

_"I'm glad that you're here to help me with this." Her smile slowly faded away and was replaced by a look of determination._

_Without another word of doubt, she pressed down her thumb on the watches crown._

__________________________________________________

In 2023, Myka woke up on the couch in the B&B. Her eyebrows furrowed as she became aware of the familiar feeling in her stomach. The curly-haired woman's hands wandered down, stroking over the curve of her stomach and she could feel someone in it reacting to her. She smiled, opening her eyes to look around. She met her wife's face next to hers. HG was resting arms and head on the edge of the couch. The younger agent's smile brightened. She reached out her hand to stroke her wife's cheek. Helena's eyes slowly filled with tears as realisation grew in her face.

"Shhh." Myka gently caught the tear running down Helena's cheek with her thumb. She shifted a little on the couch to give Helena space next to her. "Come here, I don't know if we have much time left."

Helena didn't ask her what she meant by that. Instead, she just pressed her body against her wife's, lowering her head against Myka's chest. She gently stroked her hand over Myka's swollen stomach. Myka did the same, feeling her son alive and strong under the stretched skin.

Myka sighed and let her view wander around the room, meeting Artie's eyes. He was sitting in an armchair, watching them. He smiled sheepishly, apparently recognising Myka by looking into her eyes. The curly-haired woman sighed again.

"Where is Sarah?" She asked. "Where is my daughter?"

"Where she usually is if something artifact-y is happening here." Artie answered remorsefully.

Myka sighed for a third time. She really wished to have her daughter here. But then she shook her head. She would have time for her daughter later. Now she needed to be with her wife.

She gently pressed her nose into Helena's hair and inhaled her beautiful scent. This was where she belonged.

_________________________________________________

In 2013, Myka felt pain in her shoulder. She kept her eyes closed as the feeling of being drugged struck her. With the information she had, she realised she was back in her own body: She had been shot and was currently under the influence of painkillers.

But there was another feeling. She felt a pressure around her waist and the warm soft skin of a hand around her neck. Her chin brushed against fabric and she could feel somebody's warm breath on her forehead.

So Myka moved a little and opened her eyes to find out who was holding her in her arms. In reaction, the person holding her moved too and suddenly Myka found herself looking directly into Helena's desperate and dark eyes. Myka's heart skipped a beat. _Her_ Helena was holding her. The woman she loved was looking at her worriedly but her love for Myka glistened in her eyes, asking a silent question.

The American shifted a little in the Victorian's arms to look around the room. She needed to be sure about where she was.

"Myka?" She heard Pete's voice and finally found his face.

Myka frowned, feeling pain again. "Are we in a hotel room, Pete? What happened?"

"Oh God!" Pete jumped up and performed a little dance. "IT'S YOU! Claudia! We have our Myka back."

Myka watched Claudia jumping up and down and joining Pete's little celebratory jig. She laughed.

"Mykes, there was so much happening here!" The redhead exclaimed. "We have to tell you everything. I'm so glad you're back! Coffee for everybody! We solved another case."

Myka didn't feel the need to tell them that this wasn't what was actually happening. Instead she looked at Helena's face again. The Victorian was still holding her. Apparently, Helena realised as well that she still had her arms wrapped around Myka. Immediately, the writer started shifting, but Myka reached out her left hand to stop her. She gently stroked Helena's cheek. The older woman froze and closed her eyes for a brief moment.

_Maybe we just have to seize the moment,_ the agent heard her future daughter's voice inside her head. So she buried her hand in Helena's soft locks and pulled her closer.

When she pressed her lips to Helena's, the older woman looked surprised. But after the fraction of a second this expression on her face faded away. The Victorian closed her eyes and returned Myka's kiss. Their lips parted and their tongues met and Myka suddenly felt safe and happy. She forgot the world around them, closed her eyes and enjoyed the kiss. The kiss soon turned more passionate but Myka could sense Helena's lingering insecurities. She stroked the back of Helena's neck with her fingertips, sensing Helena calming slowly down.

Myka knew that what she needed to know. Helena loved the younger woman, but she needed time for herself, to sort it all out and to recover from her loss. The Warehouse was the older woman's home, but she was also anxious about everything that had happened and could happen. But soon, she would realise that this place was the only place that could make her happy. And that she needed to be with her family, the Warehouse family, to accept the part of her life she was currently denying, living in her suburban fantasies.

Deepening the kiss, Myka realised that all she had to do - and actually could do - was wait.

___________________________________________________________

Sarah woke up on the floor of her own room in the flat she shared with her room mate. The girl slowly opened her eyes and frowned at the chaos in her room - blood stained bandages paper, notes, pens. Sarah lifted herself up and stumbled back in slight shock when she spotted the body on her bed again. She had almost forgotten this: Her reality, her time - in which a dead version of her lay on her bed. She hoped that her roommate Julia wouldn't come back early. The other girl tended to ask very annoying questions about Sarah's life - and well, a blood soaked body in her room wouldn't really help to stem them.

With a deep sigh, Sarah focussed back on the task she had to do. She felt the watch pressed in the palm of her hand. Pursing her lips, the girl walked over to the door of her room. She unlocked it and openeit it to take a glimpse outside. No one was around in their common room. Sarah remembered meeting the janitor when she had come home today and so she made a decision.

Sarah stepped out of the apartment, peering around the hallway. Some students were walking around but didn't pay attention to her or to the janitor who stood on a ladder, repairing a ceiling lamp. Sarah fixed her eyes on his back while she inched closer to him. She took a quick glimpse at his toolbox. The janitor had left it open and Sarah could make out a hammer in it.

Not taking her eyes away from the janitor's back, Sarah slowly bent over and pulled out the hammer with a quick and well-aimed move. She congratulated herself internally before stepping back from the janitor and retreating silently to her room.

Once inside, she placed the watch on the desk. Taking a deep breath, the girl raised the hammer above her head.

This was it. This would rescue her mother. At lease Sarah hoped so. She couldn't undo the accident by travelling through time but she would do everything in her might to set things right. And if this meant to destroy the only object that she thought could help her with this, so be it.

Without hesitation, Sarah slammed the hammer on the watch in front of her. The noise of the two objects colliding worried her for a second - but then she heard a crunching noise of the splintering glass. She closed her eyes in relief, before -out of a sudden - she felt the hit of an energy wave. But Sarah smiled when she felt herself being dragged through time and space, just before she completely lost her consciousness.


	19. Chapter 19

She bumped into her roommate Julia at the door of their apartment. Sarah remembered this from before.

"Bells!" Her roommate exclaimed. "Where're you headed in such hurry? You wanted to pack, right? Heading home tonight? I wish you could stay another night. There is a big party on campus tonight and I hoped we could go together"."

Well, this was different. Sarah remembered bumping into Julia, coming back to her room, but the last time she had told her about a noise in her room and assumed Sarah was already in. The dark-haired girl became suddenly aware of the weight in her hand. She traced the contours of the object in her hand without taking her eyes off of her friend. A watch. The glass was broken and the backside bent. Oh god, she had to go into her room quickly and check if everything was alright. She had to call her parents and make sure if everything was alright with them. She couldn't go home tonight. She had to spend her evening differently.

"A party?" Sarah asked, pushing through the doorway and turning around towards Julia, false cheery voice in place. "Sounds interesting. When does it start?"

Her roommate looked a bit surprised. She wasn't used to Sarah accepting party invitations. Usually the girl spent all her available time in front of text books instead of participating in drunken frat house orgies.

"At 10." The blonde Julia stated, her blue eyes boring into Sarah's. "It's at... ah, you know what? We'll just go together, Bells. What about that? And then you and I will have fun tonight, share some beers and you will finally tell me something about South Dakota and your mysterious life."

"I have no mysterious life." Sarah replied quickly, swallowing thickly.

Julia rolled her eyes. "Don't lie to me, Bells. I saw that thing inside your room."

Sarah's eyes widened. Could it be that there was the older Sarah - still lying dead on her bed? That wouldn't make any sense, the girl had destroyed the watch. If that object really existed without time it would be broken in every point of time. So the older Sarah couldn't use it. This couldn't happen, shouldn't happen… the time traveller's head was already plunging into an overdrive.

"The thing?" Sarah asked, feigning surprise, trying to mask her fear.

"That thing that buzzes sometimes." Her friend answered, cocking her head.

"Oh, _that_ thing." Sarah let out a sigh of semi-relief. "Well, yes. I like some retro stuff. That's the Iphone from 2013." She lied easily, remembering Claudia's statement in the past.

Ah, okay." Her roommate smiled but Sarah could see she wasn't completely convinced. "Well, I have to go now, but I will come back to take you to that party. Don't cancel on me again!"

Sarah rolled her eyes internally. "I promise." She huffed.

"A promise is a promise!" Julia sung while turning around and walking away. "Tonight! You and me! Party! Don't forget! You promised it! See you later."

"See you later!" Sarah yelled after her before promptly shutting the door.

She quickly looked at the watch in her hand. It was broken and bent. The glass was splintered and the whole backside of the wrist watch was in the form of a V. There was still something carved on it . _Myka. She is Sarah. Go to sleep._

Sarah smiled. She wasn't tired anymore, because everything she went through hadn't really occurred. And now she had the chance to change her future. Getting rid of her backpack and her jacket Sarah entered her bedroom and looked around.

It was empty. Well, there was her furniture and her belongings, but her bed was empty, her floor was clean. No dead body, no blood stained bandages, no dirtily scrawled papers and half-chewed pencils tossed over the floor. This was just her room- slightly messy, but in a way Sarah knew - She knew exactly where every little item was sat.

Smiling, Sarah opened a drawer and pulled out her Farnsworth. She didn't use it very often, she preferred her other communication devices, but this time she felt like she needed it.

Sitting down on her bed, she used the lever to swap to her mother's channel and pressed a button to call her.

Myka's worried face appeared on the screen before the second buzz could even be completed.

"Sarah?" She asked, her brow scrunched together in concern. "Why are you calling over Farnsworth? Usually you..."

"Oh, mom, you have no idea how glad I am to see your face." Sarah interrupted her mother.

"Okay, now I'm really a little bit concerned." Myka responded suspiciously. "Is everything alright with you? Do you have problems in college? Should your mother and I come over to get you? Kiddo? Are you stoned? I've had some very strange experienc-"

Her daughter snorted. "Mom, I'm just happy to see you. Everything is alright and I will come home soon. But... ehm... not tonight."

"What do you mean by 'Not tonight', missy?" Her mother asked, inching her face closer to the Farnsworth's screen.

"Well, there is a little party on campus tonight and I was specially invited by my roommate." Sarah forced out a smile. "You know that Julia annoys me quite often because I'm in South Dakota whenever I have hols and I do believe she thinks I'm living in Area 51 or something like that - so I promised to go with her to prove that I'm a normal girl."

 _And I'm avoiding the accident you shouldn't remember and I won't mention because I really want to keep you from going into the Warehouse tonight,_ was the part she didn't say out aloud.

"So you want to go to a party instead of coming home?" Myka clarified.

"Yes." Her daughter bowed her head.

"Where is my daughter and what did you do to her?" An affectionate grin broke out on her mother's face.

"Congratulations! Your daughter finally behaves like a student, Mrs. Bering-Wells!" Sarah could hear her momma's lilting voice.

"Momma, tell her that it's okay!" Sarah yelled, trying to reach Helena.

"Darling, let her go to that party and don't get mad about it." HG told her wife. "Our daughter will come home in time, and spend time with her boring parents. Tonight it is just you and me and Paul."

"They grow up so fast." Myka nearly whined. "Tomorrow, Paul will tell me he doesn't want to go on with our daily reading sessions. Are you sure you want to go to a party, Sarah, instead of spending time with your old and lonely mother?" The curly-haired woman's face moved closer to the screen for a second time.

"Darling, let her be. She will come home another day." Helena's face appeared on the screen, causing Myka to inch away from it. The Victorian looked amusedly at her daughter. "I wish you a lot of fun at your party. Don't you dare leave it early to read or else. I hope you will dance and sing, and do whatever it is young people do nowadays at parties…I remember the parties back in London…they were quite an affair…." 

"Helena, stop talking to her like this. It's bad enough you told her about your opium excess back in the 19th century." Myka ranted from behind. She moved her face in closer to cover her wife's.

"No pot!" She yelled.

Helena sighed in obvious annoyance. With a "Mommy and I love you." she ended the call.

Sarah looked again at the watch in her hand. She placed it on her night stand and lay down on her bed. The closed he eyes and breathed freely. Maybe she would really go to that party. And she would place the watch in the Warehouse next time she went home. Somewhere no one would find it.

_______________________________________________

2023

Myka stood in the aisle filled with watches, staring at the wrist watch in her hand. The girl had succeeded. She was sure of it. Everything had ended well. The watches glass was broken and its backside was completely bent. Was this even an artifact anymore? She wasn't sure, but the fact that she remembered everything told the agent that this wasn't a dream or anything else in that way. It had happened and now it was undone. Things have been set right.

"Claudia? Helena?" Myka yelled and put the watch back onto the shelf she got it from.

"I'm here." Claudia's voice replied from a nearby aisle. "Steve just called. He said he found her. She visited him doing inventory in the Darwin's aisle. She is alright. No worries!"

She was talking about Sarah. Myka remembered. The girl had taken another one of her walks between the aisles and got lost while doing it. Her mother remembered that she, Claudia and Helena had been running through the aisles, looking for her daughter. Then, Myka had felt this funny urge to touch the watch. Now this urge was gone and Myka smiled in relief.

"Ah, the Darwin's aisle." She nodded. "I'll be there in a few minutes. I'm glad Steve found Sarah. Meet you there."

Without looking at the watch again, Myka turned around to walk into the direction of the Darwin's aisle. Her world was complete. Helena was in it, Sarah was in it. They were well and healthy and Myka could feel her son kick inside her stomach. She placed her palm on her belly. Myka felt the fleeting, wonderful feeling of pure, unadulterated happiness flutter and settle on her chest.

Everything was alright. She could feel it now and the feeling was confirmed when she was able to wrap her arms around her daughter a few minutes later.

_______________________________________________________

2013

Myka knew something had changed when she didn't feel the pressure of Helena's lips against her own anymore. The pain in her shoulder was gone. She realised she was sitting and not lying pressed against the Victorian's body anymore. Myka missed the feeling of HG's hands on her body, of hearing the author's racing heartbeat, and the taste of her lips. But she remembered it and that was important. Myka saved this memory closest to her heart. It would be her source of hope that one day they would find their way back to each other.

When she heard Claudia's voice, she opened her eyes.

"Myka? Are you okay?" The girl yelled, sounding utterly worried. She inched closer to the older agent. "Did you touch something? What's this? A wristwatch?"

The curly-haired woman stood up and turned around.

"You don't remember?" She asked looking at the watch still clutched in her left hand.

"What should I remember?" Claudia asked, pulling out purple gloves from her pocket. "Did you get whammied? Myka, no glove no love, remember? We don't touch random artifacts in the Warehouse!" The redhead opened her gloved hand towards the other woman and Myka dropped the watch into it.

The watch didn't look the way she remembered. Its glass was broken and the backside completely bent.

"Whatever this is, I hope you're not affected by it." Claudia stated while searching through her pockets for a static bag. "How do you feel, Myka?" She asked warily.

Myka smiled as the emotions from her recent adventure returned to her. "Happy." She replied honestly.

"Okay, this tells me that there has to be something wrong. You were a puddle of tears before you touched the watch." The girl opened the bag and dropped the object into it. There were just a few sparks and Myka couldn't help but smirk.

"Better?" Her friend asked.

"Yes, much better." Myka nodded but she meant it differently. She remembered being sad and insecure during the conversation she had with Claudia before the time travel. She remembered her thoughts, her fear to admit that she was in love with Helena G. Wells and that she was afraid that this woman would never come back to her. Those feelings were completely gone now, because she knew better. She remembered her future.

Claudia pulled the watch out of the static bag again to place it on the shelf. "Funny." She said. "There is no information screen about it. Who put this artifact into the Warehouse?"

"You know what, Claudia?" Myka's smile grew."The question isn't about who put the artifact into the Warehouse but 'When was the artifact put into the Warehouse?."

"Surely before our time." Claudia shrugged, looking even more confused when Myka started laughing.

"You're right, Claudia. It must have been some agent from another time."

The redhead pulled off her gloves and looked at Myka in concern. "Are you sure you're feeling better?" 

"Oh, Claudia. I'm very sure I'm feeling better, now." The agent answered with a mysterious smile. "How about you? Shouldn't Steve be here with the promised lasagna already?

"Yeah, we were talking about it a few minutes ago." Claudia raised her eyebrows, glancing at the watch on the shelf again.

"Well, then." Myka grinned at her. "Let's go to Artie's office and find out if he has arrived already. I'm hungry." She started walking into the direction of the office.

"Myka?"

"Yes, Claudia?"

"Is really everything alright with you?" Claudia's face was contorted in confusion. Myka stopped, placed her hand on the younger agent's shoulder and smiled.

"You know what, Claudia?" She asked, smiling brightly at her firend. "Let's go get that lasagna first and I will tell you everything about what just happened. And I will talk to you about Helena."

She wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulder and gently pushed her into the direction of Artie's office. Yes, talking about this would be a good idea.


	20. Epilogue

Five months later, somewhere in Texas, Pete and Myka were taking a break from their mission. They had stopped at a diner.

"That's all." Myka told the waitress who was chewing gum obnoxiously as she took down their order, nodded and walked away.

"Seriously, Mykes? Salad?" Pete took a big gulp from his coke. "Salad in Texas? You do know that the steak in this state is-"

"Yes, Pete." Myka interrupted him, rolling her eyes. "I'm eating a salad. And I'm fine with the salad, okay? I currently don't feel the need to eat an enormous amount of protein." She smiled and then looked out of the window.

"But why?" Pete wouldn't let it go."Mykes. Steak! In Texas! Do you know how big the steaks here are? Do you know-" Pete's goofy gestures made Myka break into a laugh.

"Pete." She said when she was able to catch her breath again. "I'm completely aware of how big the steaks in Texas are and I also know how they make it and I'm still absolutely fine with just a salad. Maybe I'm missing all the testosterone that makes me want to eat silly amounts of meat."

"Oh man. You don't appreciate the meat at all." Pete glared at the waitress. "She was cute, wasn't she? Ouch!" He yelled when Myka punched his shoulder.

"Pete, she was maybe twenty. Far too young for you! I'm glad that you'll..." Myka paused. "I hope that you'll find somebody in your future who teaches you to not be a slut."

"Ouch, that almost hurt more than the punch." Pete replied, pouting. Myka laughed again.

He looked at her, smiling brightly. "I'm glad you're back." He stated.

"Hm?" Myka looked at him in surprise.

"Well, you weren't yourself anymore 'till a few months ago." Pete shrugged, taking a deep breath. "You were all sad, locking yourself in your room more often and you read those huge books for hours on end after we came back from Wisconsin. It was almost like all those years ago, when you were still mourning Sam. I'm... I'm just happy you're alright. Whatever happened, and I'm sure something happened, I'm glad it happened and I'm glad it helped you find yourself again." Pete looked down at his coke, blinking thoughtfully. "Did I sound like a girl?"

Myka watched him for a few seconds. He was right. The time travel had helped her a lot to find her way back to herself again. becoming aware of her own feelings and realising that Helena felt the same way but simply wasn't ready for coming back to her - it had helped. Everything Myka had to do was to wait for the Victorian. But she didn't doubt - not even for a heartbeat - that they were meant to share a future. And the mysterious scar Myka had found on her shoulder reminded her of that.

"Not more than you usually do." Myka answered her partner's question with a chuckle.

"Oh, and there she hits again! The great warrior princess!" Pete yelled and earned some scandalised looks from the people at the other tables.

"What?" He said to an elderly woman across the room. "My partner has managed surviving a sad and confusing part of her life. I'm proud about it, okay! Everyone around is allowed to know it and look at her in awe."

Myka started laughing again. Then she picked up the glass to take a gulp - when her mobile phone on the table started ringing. Myka's heart fluttered as she read who the caller was.

"Oh, Pete. I'm just going to take this. Go on harassing other people, I'll be back in a few minutes." She picked up the phone, and rose from her chair to walk out of the front door of the diner without looking at anything but the name on the phone's screen.

She smiled as she hit the answer button.

"Yes?" Myka asked, in anticipation of hearing the voice she was longing to hear for so long now.

"Myka!" The familiar voice with the thick British accent said. "I was just thinking about you and I thought that maybe we could share that promised coffee. If you don't mind. I would prefer to see you like this instead of bump into each other in some kind of artifact related case again."

Myka's smile grew as she felt like her heart could burst open at any moment.

Maybe this was how their Future began.

THE END (For Now.)


End file.
